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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




THE "EL SALTO" FALLS NEAR CIUDAD DEL MAIZ. 



Mexico 

AND 

Our Mission 

(Associate Reformed Presbyterian) 




By 

JAMES G. DALE 

w 

For Ten Years Missionary in Mexico 






Copyright 1910 by J. G. Dale 



press OF 

SOWERS PRINTING COMPANY 
LEBANON, PA. 



'CU275671 



To 
fflv Jf after anb iHotfjer 

Whose Life and Teachings Directed My Feet 

into the Ministry and Later to 

the Mission Field 

And to 

MpWiit 

Who for Ten Years Has Been a Faithful 
Helpmeet in the Lord. 



PREFACE 

MISSIONARY fires do not burn long without the fuel 
of facts. Only when the spiritually minded catch 
'the vision of the Regions Beyond so white to the 
harvest, does the heart flame with consuming zeal and is ready 
to burn out for Christ and the heathen world. Paul saw the 
city of Athens wholly given to idolatry and then his heart 
was stirred within him. When the great Shepherd saw the 
multitudes scattered abroad as sheep without a shepherd, His 
heart was moved with compassion and He entreated the dis- 
ciples to plead with Him that the Lord of the harvest would 
thrust forth more laborers. Let those who tarry by the stuff 
see heathen conditions as they are, and they will go and give 
and pray. 

For thirty-one years the Associate Reformed Presbyterian 
Church has carried on missionary work in Mexico and yet 
during all these years nothing more than occasional articles 
for the Church paper have been written to set before the 
home Church the conditions of the field, the problems to be 
solved, the agencies employed, the methods of operation and 
the outlook. These articles are necessarily fragmentary and 
for want of space can not deal with the conditions and prob- 
lems of the missionary operations as thoroughly as may be 
attempted in book form. 

These two considerations abundantly justify the purpose 
of the book. It recognizes that our people will never bear 
upon their hearts with Pauline fervor the evangelization of 
papal Mexico till they have seen her spiritual destitution and 
heard her piercing need-cry, and it has striven to take away 
the veil that hides that moving vision of the man from Mace- 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

donia and make the appeal ring with the force of a clarion 
call to come over and help them. For years the conviction 
has been growing that the book was needed and from all 
parts of the home Church come assurances that we have 
judged rightly and that our message has a mission. 

Mission study classes have been organized whose purpose 
is to review our denominational missionary operations. They 
have found themselves sorely hampered by the lack of a sys- 
tematic and thorough study of our missionary activities from 
which to glean the facts for class work. It is hoped that the 
book will be of some help to them. 

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the friends who have 
kindly reviewed the manuscript and made helpful suggestions. 

If the book will broaden and intensify the interest of the 
home Church in the evangelization of our Mexican field and 
enable them to more efficiently hold the ropes, it will not have 
failed of its purpose and the prayer of the author will have 
been answered. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Country 9 

II. The People 19 

III. History 35 

IV. The Religion 49 

V. Our Field 75 

VI. Plans and Ideals 85 

VII. Our Beginning 107 

VIII. Our Workers 116 

IX. Our Missionary Agencies 136 

X. Difficulties 185 

XI. Encouragements 206 

XII. Our Responsibility 226 

XIII. Forward 239 

APPENDIXES 

I. Population 261 

II. Statistics of Evangelical Missions of Mexico 262 

III. Statistics of A. R. Presbyterian Mission in 

Mexico 263-264 

IV. Bibliography 265 

V. Pronunciation of Spanish Letters 265 

Index 267 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING PAGE. 

El Salto Falls , Frontispiece v 

Farmer Plowing 15 %/ 

Indian Hut. Mexican of Lower Qass. Indian Girl 19" .. 

Water Carrier. Basket Carrier. Milk Man 23 v 

Typical Girls 31 

Making Tortillas and Drawnwork 27 

Playing Bear. Gentleman on Horseback 29 * 

Hidalgo. Juarez 45 

Diaz „ 47 

Interior of Cathedral. Saint Benito 57 

Virgin of Guadalupe 54 

Doing Penance. Scourges 62 

Rev. N. E. Pressly, D.D. and Family 112 

Rev. W. J. Bonner and Wife. Miss McMaster 116 

Rev. J. G. Dale and Family 118 

Native Pastors and Students 128 

Revs. Cruz and Sanchez with Their Families 132 

Deceased Missionaries 136 

Tampico Church. Miss Wallace's Grave 138 

Rev. Torres and Congregations. Tantima Chapel 142 

Churches of C. del Maiz and Rioverde 145 v 

Rev. J. R. Edwards and Family 147 

Missionary Teachers 150 

Students of Tampico School 155 

Students of Preparatory and Theological School... 161 ' 

Patients at a Clinic 168 

Hospital 170. 

Group of Indians. Don Severiano and Family 174 

Orphans of Hattie May Chester School 176 * 



"MAP OF THE. A.R PRESBYTERIAN MISSION FIELD OF MEXICO 1 ' 

The lines t+HWW indicate "branches of the Mexican National Kailroad. 

Towns marked f indicate Mission Stations. 

(Below in the left hand corner- is given a general out-line of Mexican 

territory* including that of our field, showing - the relation of the 

latter to the entire country.) 




Crui 



CHAPTER I. 
THE COUNTRY.— ITS PHYSICAL CONDITIONS. 

Mexico, deriving its name from Mexitl, the 
national war god of the Aztecs, commonly known 
as Huitzilopochtli, is our next door neighbor. Sep- 
arated from Texas, California and Arizona by the 
Rio Grande river, it stretches towards the south- 
east in the form of a huge cornucopia, reaching to 
the borders of Central America. From the north- 
ern line, iooo miles long, which divides it from 
the United States, the country gradually narrows 
itself towards the south till at the Isthmus of 
Tehuantepec it measures only one hundred miles 
across. The concave coast washed by the waters 
of the Gulf of Mexico, is about 1600 miles long, 
while that of the convex side on the Pacific is 
about 4500 miles long or nearly three times that 
of the Gulf coast. 

Including its islands, Mexico has an area of 
767,000 square miles or nearly that of the United 
States east of the Mississippi river. This is only 
one-half of the territory subject to the Mexican 
flag sixty years ago. Then Texas, California, Ari- 
zona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, 
Oklahoma and parts of Wyoming and Kansas 

9 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

were Mexican provinces. By treaties culminat- 
ing in that of Gadsden made in 1853, Mexico ceded 
to the United States all these states. Otherwise 
she would have lacked just one-third of having 
territory equal to that of her powerful neighbor 
Republic to the north. 

The country is very broken. *The mountain 
ranges are projections from the north. The 
Rocky Mountains stretching down along the 
Pacific coast under the name of Sierra Madre Oc- 
cidental, reaching the isthmus, are there joined to 
the Sierra Madre Oriental, which have kept close 
to the Gulf of Mexico, as they come from the 
Sierra Nevada range of the great Northwest. 
Between these two mountain systems lies the 
great plateau of central Mexico, where are to be 
found most of the large cities of the country. As 
these ranges of the Sierra Madre enter Mexico 
they mount up toward the sky. The highest peaks 
are Ixtacihuatl (looking like a colossal woman 
with her head crowned with perennial snows) 16,- 
091 ft., Toluca 15,076 ft., Orizaba 17,363 ft., Po- 
pocatapetl 17,540 ft., the highest point this side of 
the far away Andes. The « mountains fall off 
abruptly on either side of the plateau as they slope 
toward the coast. The railroad that connects Vera 
Cruz with Mexico City climbs 8000 ft., though 
the distance is only 268 miles. On the Mexican 
National, which runs from Tampico to San Luis 
Potosi, Tamasopo lies at the foot of the hills. 

10 



THE COUNTRY. 

From this point the train begins the climb of 3000 
feet to Cardenas, which is only forty miles away. 

Climate. 

The physical configuration of the country is 
unique, affording three distinct climates, and 
strange to add, all within a few hours' ride from 
each other. "From- the elevated mountain peaks 
one can look down past the temperate to the tor- 
rid zone; from the frozen cone of some volcano 
to the warm waters of the Gulf, embracing in one 
view all that class of vegetation which thrives be- 
tween the Arctic ocean and the Equator." 

On each side of the central plateau and skirting 
the Pacific ocean and the Gulf, are narrow strips 
of land that reach up to the altitude of 3000 feet. 
These constitute the "tierra caliente" or hot coun- 
try. It rarely exceeds one hundred miles in width. 
The eastern coast is subject to northers which 
correspond to the monsoons of India. They 
sweep down from the north, blowing for days, 
leaving Tampico, Vera Cruz, and other towns 
along the coast, shivering with cold. They are 
the dread of sailors, being most intense from No- 
vember to March. Save when these blizzards whip 
down the coast, driving the mercury very low, the 
temperature rarely drops below 60 degrees, and 
often rises to 100 degrees, and not uncommonly 
goes up to 104. La Paz, on the west coast, is one 
of the hottest towns in the world. On account of 

11 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

the excessive rainfall during certain seasons of the 
year, and the intense heat, the coasts have often 
been scourged with epidemics like yellow fever. 
Modern methods of sanitation, however, have been 
introduced, and now years pass without a single 
case of fever. 

The temperate belt lies between the altitudes of 
3000 and 6500 feet, with an average temperature 
of 75 degrees. Frosts are rare and never heavy. 
Even where the sultry days of May and June run 
the mercury up, the air is so dry and crisp that the 
heat is not keenly felt. The immunity from heavy 
frosts makes the plateau the home of the orange. 
Both tropical and semi-tropical fruits thrive side by 
side. Wheat and sugar cane at times grow almost 
within touch of each other. 

The "tierra fria" or cold zone extends from 
6000 feet to the snow line, which reaches 12,460 
feet above sea level. The mean temperature is 60 
degrees, while on the high mountain slopes, as at 
Toluca, the thermometer has been known to reg- 
ister 20 degrees. The cold winds from the north 
often precipitate snow, but it disappears with the 
gentlest touch of sunshine. While the larger part 
of the Republic lies within the bounds of the tor- 
rid zone, the Tropic of Cancer crossing the land 
slightly to the north of San Luis Potosi, the alti- 
tudes everywhere temper the tropical climate of 
the latitudes. Barring the rainy season, lasting 
three months, rarely a day comes and goes with- 

12 



THE COUNTRY. 

out some sunshine, and, excepting the hot belt, 
rarely a night that a blanket is not comfortable. 

Mines. 

Humbolt styled Mexico the "treasury house of 
the world." Experts say that there is not a min- 
eral known to the scientific world, except cryolite, 
that is not found in the country. Of the 24 states 
of the Republic, all except three have mines. 
While there are in operation 21,000 mines, cover- 
ing 633,213 acres of ground, and employing 500,- 
000 men, it is claimed that fully three-fourths of 
the mineral possibilities are yet to be developed. 
The output of gold for the year 1907-8 was $31,- 
921,019, while that of silver for the same period 
was $93,034,750. Of other metals such as copper 
and lead, the total production for that year was 
$158,430,625. Dr. F. S. Borton, of Puebla, is re- 
sponsible for the estimate that during the past 
400 years Mexico has supplied one-half of the sil- 
ver output of the world. Iron Mountain, in the 
state of Durango, a gigantic helmet-shaped hill 
about a mile long, 700 feet high and 2000 feet 
wide, is composed almost totally of iron. Geolo- 
gists say that it has 600,000,000 tons of iron and 
is worth $5,000,000,000,000. » 

Agriculture. 

The year divides itself into two seasons, the wet 
and the dry. The former lasts from June till Sep- 
tember, while during the remaining eight months 

13 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

it generally does not rain. Occasionally it does, 
though the rainfall is very light. On the table 
lands it often happens that the rains do not begin 
till July and August, too late for the farmer to 
plant. Consequently large areas of this section 
are wholly dependent on the facilities for irriga- 
tion. Due to the broken strata formation of the 
plateau, there are few springs and perennial 
streams that can be utilized for irrigation; but the 
civil engineer has come to the rescue of the 
drought-smitten country and collected the rainfall 
into dams, which are often made by throwing an 
embankment across the mouth of a canon. These 
have made the desert places yield abundant har- 
vests. Recently the government appropriated 
$25,000,000 to further projects for irrigation. Al- 
ready plans have been perfected by which over a 
million acres of land are to be irrigated in the val- 
ley of Mexico. One year and a half ago the gov- 
ernment granted a concession to a company to 
pump water out of Lake Chapala in quantities 
sufficient to irrigate 440,000 acres. 

Where the rainfall is sufficient, or where arti- 
ficial methods have watered the soil, its produc- 
tiveness is such that Dr. Wm. Butler, for many 
years missionary in 'the Republic, has calculated 
that the country is capable of sustaining one hun- 
dred millions of population. Crops may be 
planted in February and gathering them in June, 
leaves ample time for a second harvest before the 

14 



THE COUNTRY. 

cold waves of December come. Sugar cane, one 
of the principal crops, is planted once in 7 to 12 
years, maturing in one year, and each successive 
year sprouting and developing from the old root. 
Some fields have been harvested for 15 consecu- 
tive years. Cotton is perennial and needs to be 
planted only once in ten years. The methods of 
agriculture are primitive. The ox is used exclus- 
ively in the cultivation of the land, and the plow is 
precisely the same type as that used in the days of 
our Lord. Many of the large farms or "hacien- 
das" prefer modern machinery, but the "peon" 
does not take to the up-to-date ways, and it is 
easier to leave him to follow in the steps of his 
fathers and forefathers. Corn, sugar cane, and cot- 
ton are the three leading agricultural products, in 
the face of the fact that during the last few years 
the boll weevil has wrought widespread havoc 
with the cotton plantations. 

Peculiar Plants. 

Rubber. — South of the isthmus and stretching 
to the borders of Guatamala lie the rubber lands. 
The trees are planted from ten to thirty feet apart, 
leaving the intervening space for coffee or cacao 
plants. When twelve years old the tree begins to 
produce about three gallons of milk each year, 
which yields about one-half of a pound of rubber. 
Extraordinary trees will measure 2 feet in diame- 
ter and yield 12 gallons of milk or 2 pounds of 

IS 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

rubber annually. The states of Chiapas and Ta- 
basco are famous for their rubber plantations, 
some of which have orchards of 50,000 trees. 

Orange. — Extremely beautiful is a well cultivat- 
ed orange grove, such as may be found in the 
states of San Luis Potosi, Jalisco, Tamaulipas and 
Sinaloa. Planted in beds from the seed, the trees 
are reset when one year old. Ordinarily they be- 
gin to bear fruit after five years. They are shy of 
the cold and thrive best on the lower lands. The 
best orchards are laid out allowing 100 trees to 
the acre, each tree yielding from 1000 to 2000 
oranges, though it is not uncommon to see one 
loaded down with 3000. The crop is ready to be 
gathered in September, which fact has given the 
Mexican orange a ready sale on the markets of 
Chicago and New York, since the California and 
Florida fruit ripens later. Modern scientific meth- 
ods, however, have hastened the maturing of these 
competing groves, till the Mexican orange has lit- 
tle advantage. This, with the high tariff of one 
dollar on each box, and the added freight, has 
proved a sore discouragement to orange growers 
on this side of the Rio Grande. 

Banana. — It is found over nearly all the tropics. 
Besides being a delicious article of food, the 
stalks and leaves have properties that render 
them useful for the manufacture of paper. Though 
the stalk dies after having yielded its first fruit, 
still it needs to be planted but once, and then 

16 



THE COUNTRY. 

from sprouts. Many of these spring up around 
the parent plant. Only 18 months are required 
for fruitage. So abundant is the yield that down 
on the rich land of Chiapas and Vera Cruz bunches 
are gathered weighing 80 pounds. From 600 to 
800 plants can be placed on an acre of land. Ex- 
perts say that the banana yields 440 times the food 
that a potato does to the acre, and 130 times that 
of wheat. The bunches are cut while green and 
shipped to northern markets, where in hermetic- 
ally sealed rooms they ripen in two or three days. 
Heneqaen. — This plant grows in the states of 
Tamaulipas and Yucatan. In the latter state it is 
the principal industry of the people. It is usually 
set out from cuttings taken from the stalk when 
about 18 inches high. These are thrown in heaps 
where they lie till they seem decayed and utterly 
worthless. Then they are set 7 feet apart and in 
rows 4 feet distant from each other. After 6 years 
it will begin to yield fiber. "It grows in the form 
of a conical spike, which springs from the center, 
and which is soon circled by successive rings of 
long sword-like leaves, which radiate from it." A 
mature plant will bear from 6 to 8 rings, with 1 
to 15 leaves radiating. The lower rings are cut 
out each year, the cutting and the developing 
being almost continuous. The average life of the 
productive plant is 16 years. With a large knife, 
the leaves are cut, and by machinery are scraped, 
the pulp and the fiber being separated. Just as 

M-2 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

soon as the leaves are dry, they are baled for ship- 
ment. So profitable is the fiber that it has been 
styled the "green gold of Yucatan," the annual 
output ranging in the neighborhood of 600,000 
bales. 



Wheat 22,000,000 Bean 



MEXICO'S ANNUAL AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT. 

Corn $100,000,000 Coffee $17,000,000 

12,000,000 
7,000,000 
3,000,000 
6,000,000 
5,000,000 
2,000,000 
1,000,000 



Barley 7,000,000 

Sugar Cane 45,000,000 

Cotton 35,000,000 

Heniquen 24,000,000 

Ixtle 4,000,000 

Peanuts 1,000,000 



Tobacco 

Gum 

Pepper 

Lumber 

Potatoes 

Sarsaparilla, etc, 



18 




TYPICAL INDIAN HUT IN THE "TIERRA CALIENTE. 



te 


-'■ ^-*&- ^ -Sift. 

• 


A 





TYPICAL NATIVE OF THE LOWER CLASS. 



A TYPE OF INDIAN GIRLS IN OAXACA 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PEOPLE. 

The population of Mexico numbered 13,607,259, 
according to the last census. The male and fe- 
male proportion are almost equally divided, the 
latter having a majority of 103,023. These figures 
are only approximately accurate, for the Indians 
of the remote mountain districts shun the census 
gatherer, suspecting that the government is seek- 
ing to impose an extra tax. Reliable authorities 
reckon that the present population is at least fif- 
teen millions. Of these, thirty-eight per cent are 
of ■ the Indian race, nineteen per cent are of the 
white race, and the remaining forty-three per 
cent are mixed. The Iberian, Semite, Hamite, 
Goth, Vandal, Roman and Celt races all mingled 
their blood with that of the Aztec in that stream 
of fortune-seekers who invaded Mexico during 
the days of the Conquest. No other American 
people have the blood of more races in their veins. 

The Indian. 

There are 5,170,758 Indians scattered over the 
Republic. Of the sixty- two languages spoken in 
the country, fifty-two are Indian dialects, and 
many of them are as distinct as French from Hin- 
dustani. Only one or two of these dialects have 
been reduced to written form. It is said that fully 
two million Indians are utterly ignorant of the 
Spanish tongue. 

J 9 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

The typical Indians are not hunters with bow 
and arrow, as so often fancied, but farmers, with 
their corn fields high up on the mountain. They 
are exceedingly shy. They prefer the isolation of 
the inaccessible parts, and rarely come down to 
mingle with the other races, except on market 
days, when they come to the plazas to make their 
purchases. Barring their fondness for rum, which 
is so deeply rooted in their being that they will 
barter the most essential foodstuffs for a drink, 
they are a hard-working and enduring race. 
Though the government grants them all the rights 
of citizenship, as a race they exercise little influ- 
ence on the destiny of the nation, save as here 
and there from their quiet tribes have arisen 
heroes who have been veritable makers of Mexi- 
can history. Juarez, who framed and fought suc- 
cessfully for the enactment of the Reform laws 
that freed the country from the domination of the 
Roman Catholic hierarchy; Morelos and Guerrero, 
who bore bravely forward the banner of Independ- 
ence which Hidalgo had unfurled; and Altamirano, 
recognized in literary circles as one of the great 
masters, — all were full-blooded Indians. And so 
was the mother of President Diaz, who has piloted 
the ship of state for thirty-five years. 

The Foreign Population. 

The influx of foreign population during recent 
years has been marked. One hundred thousand 
souls have come from forty different nationalities 

20 



THE PEOPLE. 

of the earth. Of these, the immigrants from the 
United States are in the front rank, there being 
40,000 in the country, of which number 15,000 are 
residents of Mexico City. The Spaniards number 
20,000, and the English 5000. Ten thousand 
Chinese have emigrated to Mexico, still clinging 
to Taoism, the faith of their fathers, and 8000 Jap- 
anese, who are Shintoists. Curiously enough, 
there are very few negroes in the country. One 
may be seen here and there in the seaport towns, 
but in the interior there are absolutely none, save 
the occasional porter on a Pullman car. Recently 
an American company imported two thousand to 
work on their plantation. At first they did splen- 
did service, but finally became useless and all were 
discharged. The government compelled the com- 
pany to carry them back to the States. It is al- 
leged that the negro is unable to compete with 
the native laborer, and for that reason does not 
cross the Rio Grande to seek fortune. 

Form ■ of Government. 

The constitution provides for a form of govern- 
ment that is representative, democratic and fed- 
eral. The states are vested with full and sovereign 
power, touching all questions that have to do with 
the internal administration. At the same time 
they are united in one central and federal head, 
which handles all matters of interstate and inter- 
national relations. The governmental functions 

21 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

are divided into three departments, the legislative, 
the executive and the judicial. The legislative 
body comprises the Senate and the Chamber of 
Deputies. The former is composed of two senators 
from each state, and the latter of one representa- 
tive from every 40,000 inhabitants. The execu- 
tive is the president, elected every six years, and 
receives a salary of $50,000 annually. He may 
be elected indefinitely. The judicial branch em- 
braces the Circuit and Supreme courts. The gov- 
ernment of the states is modeled after the plan of 
that of the nation. Each state is divided into dis- 
tricts, which are under the jurisdiction of "jefes," 
who are answerable to the governors of the states. 
The governors are appointed by the federal au- 
thorities at Mexico City, and the "jefes" by the 
governors. 

The Army. 
The law fixes the regular army at 30,000 men, 
besides a first reserve of 28,000 and a second of 
150,000. The soldiers are stationed over the Re- 
public at the capitals of the military districts. 
Fully one-third of the officers are men trained at 
the military academy of Chapultepec. Not a small 
part of the army is composed of criminals, who 
serve the country as a punishment. The plan is 
a capital one, for while they do not make the best 
soldiers, in case of war the reserve forces are al- 
ways available. Besides the regular army, each 
district has a mounted, volunteer force known as 

22 




A, ^^■Rh 




BASKET CARRIER. 



WATER CARRIER. 




MILK MAN. 



THE PEOPLE. 

the "rurales." These are a police body, consti- 
tuted by the government, without pay. At stated 
times they report to their respective "jefes" for 
inspection. Thirty years ago* the country was in- 
fested with robbers, and the highways were no- 
where safe. President Diaz hit on this plan for 
their extermination. The "rurales" have been the 
terror of the highway bandits, and now traveling 
is safe wellnigh everywhere. 

The Navy. 

Mexico makes no pretensions toward equipping 
a navy to match those of the great powers of the 
world. And she is wise. All that is attempted is 
a marine force, capable of maintaining peace along 
the coast, for Mexico is, and expects to be, at 
peace with all the world. Three hundred and 
fifty men with one hundred and fifty officers con- 
stitute the naval equipment. 

Customs. 

Mexican life has much in common with the Ori- 
ental customs of the days of our Lord. So strik- 
ing is the resemblance that not a few ethnologists 
believe that the pioneer settlers that antedated the 
Toltecs, wandered from Western Asia. Women 
wear their "rebosas" or shawls over their heads, 
just as the traveler may see them on the streets of 
Jerusalem now, save that the latter cover the head 
more completely. Modern Rebeccas gather about 

23 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

the wells of the Mexican towns to draw water for 
the donkeys and cows, as did the fair damsel of 
Bethuel, when the servant of Abraham drew near 
in quest of a wife for his master's son. They carry 
homeward the water in the earthen pots that sit 
most gracefully on their heads, precisely as we 
have seen them do about the wells of Cana and 
Nazareth. The common laborer wears his san- 
dals, made after the identical style of those the 
apostles had when they followed the Master over 
the hills of Galilee. The plow, which Elisha fol- 
lowed up and down the furrow when Elijah called 
him to take up his mantle soon to fall, is the exact 
prototype of those seen in any Mexican field, and 
drawn by oxen just as then, with the yoke tied to 
the horns by strong bands of leather. The houses 
are built with flat roofs, like the home of Simon of 
Joppa, where Peter was praying when the messen- 
gers came from Cornelius. The donkey is the 
same beast of burden for the common people. 
Mexican life becomes a most helpful commentary 
on the gospels that record the walk and words of 
our Lord. 

Plantation Life. 

Like the Orientals, the people live almost ex- 
clusively in cities, towns and ranches. It is rare 
to find isolated homes scattered through the coun- 
try. From the towns they will go for miles into 
the country to till the land. Among the Oaxaca 

24 



THE PEOPLE. 

Indians it is not uncommon for them to cultivate 
their corn fields thirty miles away, and bring" all 
the produce home on their backs. 

The greater proportion of the laboring class are 
gathered on plantations or "haciendas." These 
immense farms are vestiges of the old Spanish re- 
gime, when the king divided the lands and passed 
the parcelled tracts into the hands of the new 
settlers. The style of the "hacienda" corresponds 
exactly to< that of the feudal system of Europe, 
save that the government has eliminated the en- 
slaving feature, though it often happens that the 
"peons" of the "haciendas" are practically slaves. 
In the center of the "hacienda" stands the mansion 
of the owner, and around it are the huts of the 
laborers, reaching far off into the surrounding 
plain. In the early days the main building was 
enclosed by an impregnable wall, and when at- 
tacked by invading robbers, which often happened, 
all ran into the castle enclosure for protection. 
Hard by the "hacendados" mansion stands the 
chapel, where the Catholic priests say mass for the 
edification (?) of the people. The owner generally 
resides in a neighboring city, leaving his interests 
in the care of an overseer. Not unfrequently these 
plantations are as large as entire counties of the 
United States. Near by is one that will measure 
thirty-five miles square, and it is not exceptional. 
They are known to command as many as 20,000 
laborers, whose daily wages will rarely exceed 

25 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

twenty-five cents silver or twelve cents United 
States currency. This system of "haciendas" has 
sorely checked the progress of agriculture, and 
there will dawn a better day when these immense 
tracts of land are divided and sold to different 
parties. 

The Homes. 

The houses are made mostly after the same 
model; square-shaped, of one story, and with a roof 
well-nigh flat. No space is left for the front 'yard. 
The "zewuan" (front door) opens on the sidewalk. 
The entire yard is enclosed by a high wall, so that 
with the waiting boy sleeping just inside the front 
door, there is little chance for robbers to enter. 
The windows are enclosed with iron bars. These 
were necessary years ago, when at any hour the 
home might be invaded by a band of bandits, and 
modern changes have not disturbed these protec- 
tions. The home is built around a court, which 
is nearly always filled with choicest flowers. If 
there is lacking the front yard, with its rich Ken- 
tucky blue grass, the loss is somewhat compen- 
sated for by the inside court or "patio," which is 
always refreshing. Even among the poor, it is 
rare to find a home without flowers. On the far- 
away ranches one may see the humble cottage 
beautified with pots of flowers, the water with 
which to keep them alive being carried a mile or 
more on the heads of the women. The advantages 

26 




# 




THE PEOPLE. 

of good ventilation are not generally recognized. 
Very often among the poorer classes may be seen 
homes with no windows at all, but two doors 
which are tightly closed at night. Stoves and fire- 
places are not used even, in the high climates of 
eight and ten thousand feet. The rich wrap their 
furs about them, while the poor grin and bear it. 
The ordinary hut of the Indian is made of a 
thatched roof of grass, walled with canes and 
mother earth for a floor. Sometimes the walls are 
daubed with simple mud. Most often they are not. 
The chilly winds from the north have free pass 
through the cane walls. The bed is a simple mat 
of cane or grass, on which they sleep contentedly, 
covered with their blanket. If the thermometer 
falls very low they will kindle a fire in the middle 
of the room and gather about the little blaze to 
keep warm. 

National Dishes. 
From the humblest hut to the homes whose 
tables afford the choicest menu, "tortillas" and 
"frijoles" are the favorite dishes. Hardly a table 
is spread without these, which are seasoned with 
red pepper and to spare. The "frijole" resembles 
the Boston baked bean. It is first well boiled and 
then fried with lard. The "tortilla" is a corn cake, 
made from the meal ground on the "me tat e" or 
rock, and made always by the women. The corn 
is first boiled in lime water, after which it is ground 
on the "metate" into a very fine meal called "nix- 

27 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

tamal," then made into small round cakes and 
baked on an earthen plate or sheet of iron called 
"comal." The high rate of mortality among the 
women of the lower class has been attributed to 
this hard work of bending over the rock and grind- 
ing the corn for the "tortillas," During the last 
few years, small mills, operated by electricity or 
gasoline motors, have been introduced into the 
country, and they have proven a veritable boon to 
woman. Thousands and thousands of families live 
year after year whose bill of fare never gets be- 
yond the "frijoles" and "tortillas/' with an abun- 
dance of pepper to be sure. And there are multi- 
tudes whose daily food consists of "tortillas" and 
pepper, and these often served cold. 

Typical Traits. 

The people are kind and hospitable to a fault. 
The traveler will never want for a resting place, 
unless he be a Protestant against whom the Cath- 
olic priest has embittered the hearts of the people. 
Patients often come to our hospital whom we are 
not able to receive on account of the contagion 
of their disease. These have little trouble to find 
a lodging place, though they be strangers in the 
town. Families living in a tiny hut and with a 
large family, will unhesitatingly share the limited 
comforts of their home to the sick seeking health. 
Beggars abound, yet they rarely knock at a door 
and are denied a bit of bread. 

28 



THE PEOPLE. 

To be "simpatico" or amiable is counted one of 
the cardinal virtues and a sure mark of good breed- 
ing. The rich, and even the poorest, on making 
your acquaintance, will invariably tell you that they 
now become your servants and their homes are at 
your orders. To praise a thing, be it a jewel, a 
horse, a house or a plantation, one is sure to have it 
said that it is yours. To be sure this is not to be 
taken literally. It is but a cordial outburst of gen- 
erosity, and the recipient is to decline with thanks. 
Not all the foreigners understand. A wild westerner 
was introduced to a Mexican Sefior on the street, 
who most politely placed himself at his orders, 
and did the same with his home. The Mexican 
gentleman was amazed on returning home to find 
the American seated in his parlor in his best chair, 
with his soiled boots resting on the sofa, and a 
cigar in his mouth. "Well, Colonel, I've come," 
remarked the jolly fellow from the wild West. 

Courtship and Marriage. 

"Playing bear" is the current phrase for 
courting. When a young man falls in love, he 
stands about the street in front of the home of his 
lady love, watching the windows and balconies. 
By the use of a language without words, she under- 
stands his movements, and if Cupid's arrows have 
pierced her heart, she will appear on the balcony 
or at the window or respond by a gentle wave of 
the curtain. All his leisure hours are spent about 

29 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

the street of her home to catch a glimpse of his 
"novia," At first she appears to rebuff him, but 
he knows how to interpret and continues to come. 
After a few days, she will come to the window to 
speak to him. The next day she will stay a little 
longer. Then follows the regular calls at her win- 
dow where he lingers till the late hours of mid- 
night, he standing on the sidewalk and holding 
her hand through the iron bars of the window. He 
is not permitted to enter the home till some inti- 
mate friend has got special permission from her 
parents. Even then the lovers are not left alone. 
A third party is always present and often the en- 
tire family. If he wins his suit, he is supposed to 
furnish the full bridal trousseau, generally white 
satin or silk, and if he is from the better class, the 
several dresses will cost him hundreds of dollars. 
The wealthiest class order direct from Paris. Here, 
at least, the American feels that he has the decided 
advantage. 

Eighteen days before the marriage, the groom 
brings the civil judge to the home of the bride, 
with four witnesses, before whom the contracting 
parties declare their purpose of matrimony. This 
is called the presentation. Immediately the judge 
gives public notice that in eighteen days, the two 
are to be united in holy wedlock unless valid ob- 
jection is filed against it. At the expiration of the 
specified time, the groom again brings the wit- 
nesses and judge, and the marriage is consummat- 

30 



THE PEOPLE. 

ed. The judge charges ten dollars for each trip. 
The common people go through the same cere- 
mony, save that they meet the civil officer in his 
office, for which no charge is allowed. The gov- 
ernment recognizes no ecclesiastical ceremony. 

Having complied with the civil requirements, 
the bride and groom pass through the third stage, 
that of the ecclesiastical ceremony, where the par- 
ish priest makes them one. For his services the 
spiritual father (?) charges any price, even to one 
hundred dollars, if the groom comes from the up- 
per grades of society. And even if not, he will 
hardly reduce his fee to less than twenty dollars. 
He insists that the legal ceremony has no value 
before God. And this fact, with the enormous 
fees exacted by the priests, has brought on the 
shameful condition of thousands and thousands of 
families over the country, in which the father and 
mother are living together unmarried, not being 
able tOi pay the necessary fee, and having been 
taught that the civil marriage is a farce. 

Music. 

All Mexicans are lovers of music, and few are 
without some musical talent. Among the upper 
classes, nearly every home has a piano. On mis- 
sionary trips we have found pianos in mountain 
towns fifty-five miles from the nearest railroad sta- 
tion, where there was no road better than a 
mere donkey trail. Indians had carried the pianos 

31 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

over those fifty-five miles, and across bridgeless 
rivers. 

Every town of moderate size has a band, and 
most of them are well worth hearing. These give 
weekly concerts in the plaza or public park. Peo- 
ple of all classes gather with their families in the 
evening and walk round and round while the band 
plays, until about ten o'clock. It is the favorite 
place for the young people to make love, coming 
around to meet each other, smile and pass on. 
These concerts are a veritable blessing to the hum- 
bler classes after the day's work is over. There 
all distinctions are blotted out. The rich and poor 
meet together. 

Bull Fights — The National Sport. 

Sabbath afternoon is the time always set, for 
then is drawn the largest crowds. They are held 
in immense amphitheaters, some of them with a 
seating capacity of 20,000 persons. The size of 
the audiences may be imagined from the fact that 
at times the gate receipts will run up to $30,000 to 
$40,000. The cost of the tickets range from five 
dollars down to fifty cents. 

It is a scene of blood. The fiercest bulls, worth 
as much as eight hundred dollars, are brought into 
the ring. The "picadores," lancers, mounted on 
horses, stick sharp barbs into the shoulders of the 
animal till he is wild with rage. The horse is 

32 



THE PEOPLE. 

blindfolded so as to make him insensible of the 
danger. Thus the rider dashes to the front of the 
charging bull and plants the keen daggers into 
his shoulders. Early in the fight the horse is 
gored, but he is spurred on to charge again and 
again, till he falls from loss of blood and dies. 
Another and another is brought in to share the 
same fate. Each time the rider escapes. The bull, 
now with his shoulders stinging from the deep 
pricks of the daggers, having gored to death horse 
after horse, frenzied with anger, is ready for the 
fighter who enters on foot. Coolly walking to the 
front of the bull, which quicker than the clock 
strikes a second, dashes for his tormenter, the lat- 
ter holds out his red cloak, behind which he pre- 
tends to shield himself, while through it the ani- 
mal drives his horns thinking to put an end to his 
enemy, to find that the agile fighter has quietly 
stepped aside and is ready for another attack. This 
is repeated till the bull is discouraged. His sharp 
horns, backed by the strength of a lion, are no 
match for the lightning-like movements of the 
enemy, coupled with the nerves of steel. Finally 
the fighter lays aside his red cape and waits for 
the rush of the doomed bull. With the grit of a 
tiger he points a keen lance and drives it into the 
heart of the animal, while the crowd applauds it- 
self hoarse. The hero retires from the ring, with 
the bull and horses weltering in blood. It must 
be a most revolting and sickening sight. 

33 

M-3 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

At times the fighter will receive as much as four 
thousand dollars for the work of a single after- 
noon. The annual slaughter of a fighter, who has 
his season fully occupied, is from one hundred to 
two hundred bulls. The "torero" or fighter is 
generally from the lower ranks of society, and is 
lionized very much as are the prize fighters by 
the rabble of the United States. President Diaz 
is against the inhuman practice, and often have 
fights been prohibited in the Federal District, 
but only when the iron arm of law makes a fighter 
liable to years in a penitentiary cell, will the bloody 
amusement come to an end. One thing sure. It 
will die hard. But there is hope. There is an 
Anti-Bullfighting Society at work, and one sena- 
tor has had the courage to introduce a measure in 
the National Congress that would place the fight 
under the ban of law. 



34 



CHAPTER III. 

HISTORY. 

When the Spanish conquerors came to Mexico 
they found races that had developed high grades 
of civilization. Among other marks of advance- 
ment, they had invented a system of picture writ- 
ing by means of which they transmitted their 
thoughts and their history to succeeding genera- 
tions. At Tenoehtilan, the Aztec capital, was locat- 
ed their great library, in which they had stored 
away manuscripts that told of those long epochs of 
pre-historic times. Juan Zumarrago, one of the 
pioneer Roman Catholic bishops, true to the spirit 
that always has characterized that church that 
would extinguish all light and usher us back into 
the dark ages, ordered the library burned, and 
thus destroyed those veritable literary treasures, 
those documents that are the only authoritative 
source of light on that long range of history that 
reaches far back into the dark unknown. 

Pre-historic Tribes. 

One thing is doubly sure. Thousands of years 
ago there thrived in Mexico empires with a civili- 
zation not to be despised. To this testify silent, 
half-buried ruins scattered all over the land. Such 
are the pyramids of Cholula, whose base covers 20 
acres and rises 177 feet high, with an apex measur- 

35 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

ing 144 ft. by 202 ft. The Indian legends say that 
the band of giants began to build a tower by which 
to reach the celestial lands, but the gods became 
angry and demolished their work. At Teotihua- 
can, 27 miles from Mexico City, is a range of 
mounds two and a half miles long and two miles 
wide, the largest being the Pyramid of the Sun, 
whose base is equal to that of Gizeh, the greatest 
of the Egyptian pyramids, and with half its height. 
Close by nestles that of the Moon, almost as large, 
while around these cluster hundreds of smaller 
pyramids. All these bear a most striking resem- 
blance to those marvels of architecture scattered 
up and down the Nile valley. The Palenque ruins, 
in the state of Chiapas, are so old that archaeolo- 
gists have been trying to prove that they mark 
the cradle of the human race. The buried cities of 
Chicken-Itza in Yucatan, with the overgrown 
forests, rival some of those rare specimens of archi- 
tecture that Pericles built on the hills of Athens. 
These remnants of those far remote ages, that re- 
mind us of the Parthenon or the temples of those 
old master builders on the Nile, bear unmistakable 
witness that in Mexico empires rose, flourished, 
and climbed to laudable heights of civilization. 
Then their glory dimmed and faded. We know 
not when, nor why nor how. 

From whence came these tribes? Ethnologists 
disagree. Some affirm that they came from 
Europe; others that they were of African descent; 

36 



HISTORY. 

while others still trace their origin to the Semitic 
races of Asia. Of the last theory the eminent an- 
thropologist, Humbolt, was the leading champion. 
He is said to have observed more American tribes 
than any other traveler and fully believed that the 
primitive races of America were closely akin to 
Asiatic people. They came by way of Behring 
Strait, or sailed across the Pacific precisely as 
many Japanese junks are known to have drifted 
over to American shores. 

Toltecs. 
But discarding legendary lore and dealing with 
the earliest authenticated history, the Toltecs 
came from the north during the seventh century 
and overran the valley of Mexico, founding there 
their capital city, Tula, and building up an empire 
of four million souls. They were not a warlike 
people, but loved peaceful ways, devoting them- 
selves to the cultivation of the arts and the more 
humble sons of toil, to the quiet pursuits of agri- 
culture. Like the Pharaohs, they were master 
builders, and attained such skill that their name 
has become a synonym for architecture. They dug 
into the earth, developed the mines and turned the 
metals to most excellent uses. They studied the 
heavenly bodies and wrought out a complex ar- 
rangement of time that placed them far in advance 
of their age. They invented a system of hiero- 
glyphic writing that was used for centuries, and 
compares favorably with the clay tablets used as 

37 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

letters by the Babylonians, and now unearthed on 
the banks of the Tigris. They planted cotton and 
wove for themselves clothes. For 400 years the 
Toltecs prospered. At last they discovered the 
drink "pulque," a most injurious intoxicant, and 
that marked the date of their political decline. 
They were soon displaced by the Chichimecas, who 
organized a powerful military government. These 
rude sons of the forest lived on the warpath and 
thought little on those things that make for peace 
and progress. 

The Aztecs. 
Quickly these races were followed by others, of 
which the Aztecs were the principal tribe. Enter- 
ing the country from the northwest, after a series 
of wanderings, they came to the shores of Lake 
Texcoco. There they saw perched on a prickly 
pear leaning over the edge of the water, a large 
eagle with a serpent in his talons, and with his 
great breast open to the rising sun. The oracle 
declared this auspicious omen to be indicative of 
the will of the gods that they should make that 
spot their future home, and so they did. They 
built by the lake, huts of reeds and rushes and lived 
on the fish of the waters of Texcoco. These new- 
comers were the lineal descendants of the native 
Indian tribes of Mexico. From Tenochtilan they 
pushed the limits of their territory toward all the 
cardinal points till they were masters of the entire 
country. 

38 



HISTORY. 

These Aztecs were the sternest religionists, 
teaching "three states of future existence: (i) 
Where those with no other merit than having a 
natural death were to enjoy a negative existence 
— everlasting sleep. (2) Where the wicked were 
to suffer in everlasting darkness for their sins. (3) 
Where those who died in battle or by sacrifice 
passed immediately with songs and dances into* the 
presence of the sun god."* The god of » war, Huit- 
zilopochtli, was the central figure in all their devo- 
tions, and a bloody monster he was. To him 
was erected on the very spot where now stands the 
cathedral of Mexico City, a temple known as the 
"Teocali," a kind of pyramidal structure enclosed 
within a mighty wall, where assembled as many 
as 40,000 on feast days. Ahuitzotl dedicated the 
teocali in i486, celebrating the occasion by the 
sacrifice of 70,000 prisoners of war. Terry says 
that they were formed in a line two miles long, 
and that the sacrifice, or better said, the butchery, 
consumed two days. On the teocali was a huge 
rock, where the victims were flayed alive. Five 
priests stretched the unfortunate victim upon the 
convex rock while the sixth cut out his heart; 
and while yet smoking, it was cast at the feet of 
Huitzilopochtli. Bishop Zumarrago calculated that 
20,000 prisoners were thus mercilessly slaughtered 
each year, in which bloody rites officiated 50,000 
priests. 



• Mexico Coming into Light. — Butler, page 27. 

39 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Finally, there arose that mighty prophet of Az- 
tec mythology, who heralded reform measures, as 
did Confucius in China, or Buddha in India. It 
was Quetzalcoatl, the "Fair God" of Lew Wallace. 
He came from Tlapallan, the distant Orient where 
he had been a high priest. With long hair and 
flowing beard, he was ever attended with song 
birds, and at his command the earth teemed with 
flowers of intoxicating perfume, fruits and most 
abundant harvests. The ascetic priest raised his 
voice against the inhuman butchery of prisoners, 
and hurled his anathemas at the heartless god of 
war. He established houses of prayer, taught the 
people to do penance, to till the land and to turn 
from their warpaths to ways of industry and peace. 
His crusade made for him a mortal enemy in Tez- 
catlipoca, who gave him a drink of poison which 
well-nigh bereft him of his reason, and the pure- 
minded prophet went out to wander, followed by 
his song birds. At last he embarked on a boat 
made of entwined snakes, and sailed away toward 
the setting sun, promising to return one day as a 
white man to wreak vengeance on his foes. 

The Aztec kingdom touched the zenith of its 
glory during the reign of Moctezuma, who was on 
the throne when Cortez landed at Vera Cruz, 
April 21, 15 19. The king had a relay system of 
runners or couriers throughout his realm, who 
carried hieroglyphic messages from the farther- 
most nook of the land to the royal palace. So 

40 



HISTORY. 

swift were these that it is said that fresh fish were 
served on the king's table 24 hours after they had 
been taken from the gulf, 260 miles distant. No 
sooner had the white man landed than these cour- 
iers rushed the news to Moctezuma. They were 
sure that Quetzalcoatl had fulfilled his promise to 
return, and their hearts quaked at the thought. 

The Spanish Conquest. 

The landing of Cortez was the first step in a 
series which resulted at last in the utter overthrow 
of the empire of the Moctezumas. With a daring 
seldom equalled and never surpassed, he sent one 
of his ships back to report to the king the found- 
ing • of the new kingdom and then set fire to all 
the rest. Nothing perhaps in all the bold exploits 
of ancient history exceeded the fearless resolution 
of the invader. With only 415 men he turned his 
back on the sunken hulls of the burned ships, thus 
cutting off all hope of escape, and set out for 
Tenochtilan, the Aztec capital, where lived 500,000 
souls, and representing a kingdom of four or five 
million who thirsted for human blood. All these 
he would conquer with that handful of 415 men on 
foreign soil. 

And precisely that he did. Openly he confessed 
that he had a disease of the heart which only gold 
could cure, and driven by this mad thirst for the 
fabulous wealth of the new world, he butchered 
and burned Aztecs for almost two years. March- 

41 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

ing toward the capital he made friends with the 
Tetomacs, who joined his invading forces. Pass- 
ing through the Republic of Tlaxcala he found 
tribes hostile to Moctezuma who gladly rallied to 
the Spanish banner to seek vengeance on their 
foes. With these allies Cortez pushed on toward 
his goal, mercilessly murdering 6,000 Indians as 
he neared Tenochtilan. Moctezuma came out to 
meet Cortez with all the gorgeous equipage that 
the abounding gold and precious stones of his 
realm could invent. His attendants bore huge 
globes of gold as presents to the conqueror, beg- 
ging the Spaniards to return to their far-away 
land; but Cortez had come with a passion for gold 
and had seen enough to fan that zeal into a very 
consuming flame. He accepted the invitation of 
Moctezuma and marched into the capital, his sol- 
diers occupying the barracks of the palace. This 
royal hospitality the Spaniards reciprocated with 
the heartless treachery of making Moctezuma 
prisoner. The infuriated populace awoke to the 
full intent of the Spaniards and arose with a 
mighty vengeance to drive the hated "malinches" 
from their shores. To add fuel to the flame, the 
Spaniards stormed the "teocali" and robbed the 
sacred precincts of the guarded treasures. All 
Tenochtilan was in arms. With the hope of quell- 
ing the uprising, Cortez sent Moctezuma out on 
the roof of the palace to entreat the crowds to dis- 
perse. A stray arrow, hurled not at him, but 

42 



HISTORY. 

aimed at one of the Spaniards, wounded Mocte- 
zuma, from which the broken-hearted king- died. 

The situation grew worse with each hour. Fin- 
ally Cortez counselled his men to gather all the 
gold they could carry and follow him. Under the 
cover of darkness the Spaniards stole through the 
streets, hoping to pass unnoticed, but the Aztecs 
spied them, and before they could pass over the 
lake, the whole city was at their heels. History 
has called it "the sad night." The Indian wreaked 
to the full his long pent up fury. Fully three- 
fourths of the Spaniards and 4,000 allies fell to red- 
den the waters of Texcoco with their blood. 
$2,000,000 was lost in the midnight struggle. The 
disaster was such that the next morning even the 
stone-hearted Cortez sat on the shore of the lake 
under the shade of a tree that is still preserved in 
Tacubaya, and wept over the terrible havoc. His, 
however, was the spirit that never knows when it is 
defeated. He withdrew his weakened forces to 
Tlaxcala and there wintered. The following spring 
he laid siege to Tenochtilan. It has a parallel in 
the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, when "room 
was wanting for crosses and crosses for carcasses." 
For three months the poor Aztecs awaited their 
doom. At last the blow fell and from one hundred 
to two hundred thousand were massacred. Some 
70,000 fled to the open country. The Spaniards 
remembered the "sad night" and had no mercy. 

Thus Mexico passed under the Spanish yoke, 

43 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

and it was iron rule for three hundred years. Un- 
der a system of government by viceroys appointed 
by the king, the tribes were reduced to practical 
slavery. By royal decree the country was divided 
into districts, which were placed under the care 
(?) of favorites of the crown. All the Indians of 
those sections were turned over to them to be edu- 
cated and christianized. Left in the hands of the 
avaricious Spaniards, the system degenerated into 
a kind of peonage that was abject slavery. Laws 
were passed forbidding the Indian to trade with 
anyone save the Spaniards under penalty of death. 
Everything was taxed, even to the religious rites 
to be paid by the devotees. The clergy, the mili- 
tary and the favored Spaniards were subject to no 
tribunals of law. Nothing should be raised in 
Mexico that Spain could produce. "Vast archi- 
tectural piles, churches, colleges, convents, mon- 
asteries crowded each other in every city and in 
almost every village, built by the forced and unre- 
quited labor of the timorous converts."* So de- 
cimating was the dominating rule of the three 
hundred years that the population of the ancient 
capital was reduced to 8,000 souls. They were 
three centuries of grossest injustice, brazen-faced 
bribery, heart-sickening corruption, rapacious 
avarice, a story of wrongs too long to be recited, 
till at last the yoke became too galling to be borne 
and the national spirit cried out for life and liberty. 



* New Era in Old Mexico. — Winton, page 16. 

44 



HISTORY. 

Struggles for Independence. 

Don Miguel Hidalgo, on the morning of Sep- 
tember 1 6, 1810, rang the parish bell as a tocsin 
of war, and with the "grito de Dolores" (the cry 
of Dolores), now repeated every sixteenth of Sep- 
tember by the president and every mayor of the 
Republic, he rallied his parishioners, who were 
fired by his appeals for independence. In five days 
he had gathered 20,000 Indians. They marched 
on Guanajuato, which fell into their hands, with 
$5,000,000, which amount better prepared them 
for the death • struggle which was now on in dead 
earnest. "On to Mexico" was the cry, and it was 
heeded. Reaching the high mountain that over- 
looks the Capital City, the revolutionists halted. 
Hidalgo realized that Calleja, the Spanish viceroy, 
was preparing for a crushing blow, and that the 
well-diaciplined and thoroughly organized army of 
the crown was more than a match for his patriotic 
Indians, without either arms or discipline. To 
march on Mexico City and storm Chapultepec 
would be hardly less criminal than to lay the head 
of his patriotic army on the block ready for the 
executioner's ax. He turned northward, with the 
hope of being able to reach the United States, 
where he might secure the needed help for the 
coming struggle. The royal troops lost no time. 
They overtook and routed Hidalgo, who was be- 
trayed into their hands and shot. His head was 
sent back to Guanajuato, and hung on the corner 

45 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

of the fort he had taken. There it remained for 
ten years. Successively arose heroes like Morelos 
and Guerrero, who taking up the mantle of their 
fallen leader, did nobly for the cause of rising 
truth. One by one they were captured and shot, 
till after ten years of blood and struggle, Mexico 
was declared free. 

Since then the country has passed through many 
local revolutions and several wars: that waged 
with the United States in 1846-48, by which all the 
territory north of the Rio Grande was ceded to 
the United States, for which the latter were to 
pay fifteen million dollars; that with France, who, 
under the pretext of collecting certain moneys due 
their subjects, organized a government of their 
own, placing Maximilian, an Austrian prince, on 
the throne. Led by the "little Indian" Juarez, the 
Mexican forces overthrew the self-imposed mon- 
archy in 1863 and condemned Maximilian to be 
shot. 

The Separation of Church and State. 

The Reform laws passed in 1874 separated 
church and state. The liberal party were led to 
victory by Juarez, who has been ranked by Victor 
Hugo with Abraham Lincoln in point of courage 
and far-sighted statesmanship. Though forever 
anathematized by the Romish church and con- 
signed (?) to the lowest realms of the bottomless 
pit, he is loved throughout the land as the true 

46 




GENERAL PORFIRIO DIAZ, PRESIDENT OF MEXICO. 



HISTORY. 

emancipator of his country. The reform enact- 
ments declared the church and state forever sep- 
arate, granted liberty of worship, made all citizens, 
even the bishops and archbishops, amenable to the 
laws of the land, established marriage as a civil 
contract and forbade any religious body the right 
to hold property, confiscating the vast estates and 
buildings held by the Catholic church, to the 
amount of $90,000,000. 

The Administration of Gen. Porfirio Diaz. 

General Porfirio Diaz was made president in 
1876, and with a short interim of four years, he 
has been at the helm of state all through these 
thirty-four years, leading his country to the front 
rank among the prosperous nations of the world. 
It is essentially the Mexico of Diaz, a land solvent 
financially, and facing a future rich with promise. 
While the national debt is $380,000,000, national 
credit stands with the best at all the American and 
European courts. In spite of the fact that $50,- 
000,000 had been expended on public works at 
the close of the years 1908-9, the reserves of avail- 
able cash amounted to $82,566,825. During the 
same year the revenue receipts were $111,771,867, 
while the governmental expenditures were only 
$93,177,441, leaving in the national treasury a sur- 
plus of $18,594,426, a net gain above the cost of 
operating the various departments of the Repub- 
lic. Can many nations present a better balance 

47 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

sheet? The principal railroads of the country have 
been merged into one vast system, in which the 
government owns the majority of the share capi- 
tal, placing lines 5272 miles long under federal 
control. The central towns of the Republic are 
connected by a network of telegraph lines 45,000 
miles long, and all owned by the government. The 
Express companies, too, have passed into federal 
hands. During the year 1908-9 the imports of the 
nation were $156,504,447, while the exports were 
$231,101,795. 

While according to the census of 1900 only six- 
teen per cent, of the population could read and 
write, the governmental records for 1907 report 
that there were in the Republic 9710 schools under 
Federal control, and 2230 private schools. These 
were maintained at a cost of $8,980,868.77. The 
Mexican Herald, the leading English daily of the 
Republic, in its issue of December 26, 1909, as- 
serted that there was practically one school for 
every municipality of the Republic, and that fully 
one million children were attending these schools. 

In Mexico City has been established a national 
library with 205,000 volumes. Scattered over the 
country are 138 public libraries, 33 museums for 
scientific purposes, 11 meteorological observator- 
ies. The spirit of enlightenment has been encour- 
aged till 702 newspapers are issued, of which the 
Imparcial, of Mexico City, is the leading daily, 
with a circulation of 75,000. 

48 



CHAPTER IV. 

RELIGION. 

Baptized Paganism. 

Cortez, who outraged the moral sense of man- 
kind by his merciless butchery of thousands and 
thousands of innocent Indians, had come to Mex- 
ico with the avowed purpose of converting the 
natives. He had sailed under the protection of 
St. John and St. James. On his standard blazed a 
red cross embroidered with gold. He led the way, 
and in the wake of his army followed the Catholic 
priests, who would help turn the Aztec kingdom to 
the Romish faith. The military leader and the 
spiritual advisers worked hand in hand, and by 
sheer force of arms the nation accepted the new 
faith. 

Prescott relates one of the many times when at 
Cozmel the Indian was loathe to abandon his idols. 
Cortez ordered the images hurled from the "Teo- 
cali" or temple and mass to be said to the crowds 
of 'natives, the new converts (?) to Romanism. In 
this way, adds Prescott, "they demolished in a 
short while all the Aztec temples, great and small, 
SO' that not a vestige of them remained." Con- 
quered, but not convinced, the natives became 
Catholics. And it was a task of wholesale con- 
version. To teach the multitudes a few phrases of 
prayer to the virgin, sprinkle over them the holy 

49 



M-4 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

water sufficed, they said, to work within them the 
transforming regeneration of the gospel. The 
priests boasted that their ordinary day's work was 
from ten to twenty thousand souls.* In the course 
of a few years after the reduction of the Mexican 
empire, the sacrament was administered to more 
than four millions. 

General Vicente Palacio, a Mexican historian, 
wrote that "the people conquered, did not have 
even a remote idea of Christian doctrine or Cath- 
olic worship; but they looked upon their conver- 
sion to that doctrine and worship as a necessary 
consequence of their defeat in battle, and an in- 
dispensable requisite which affirmed their vassal- 
age to the Spanish monarch. The conquered na- 
tives came to the conclusion that conversion and 
baptism were the most powerful shield behind 
which to protect themselves from further cruelties. 
They therefore entered the towns en masse, ask- 
ing the missionaries to baptize them, and in search 
of the precious guarantees of life and liberty, t It 
was this that forced Humbolt, the great traveler, 
to admit "that the introduction of the Romish re- 
ligion had no other effect on the Mexican than to 
substitute new ceremonies and symbols for the 
rites of a sanguinary worship. Dogma has not 
succeeded dogma, but ceremony to ceremony. ,, 
Nor is Abbott's commentary unjust "that Chris- 



* Mexico in Transition. — Butler, page 11. 
tQuoted in Latin America, Brown, pages 74, 75. 

50 



RELIGION. 

tianity, instead of fulfilling its mission of enlighten- 
ing, converting and sanctifying the people, was it- 
self converted. Paganism was baptized and Chris- 
tianity was paganized." 

So zealous were these Castilian kings to co-op- 
erate with the propagandists of the new faith that 
laws were formulated that would practically drive 
the Indian into the Romish fold. For example, a 
law was enacted making only Christian children 
eligible to inherit the property of their fathers. 
The chiefs were given the right to compel the 
members of his tribe to accept the Catholic faith. 
Thus millions flocked to the religion of the con- 
querors, though still pagans at heart and outright 
idolaters. 

All this recital of so-called conversion has its 
counterpart in the dreary chapter of history, when 
Islam overran Africa and at the point of the sword 
made the unlettered negroes followers of Moham- 
med, till the whole Sudan looked to the prophet of 
Mecca for their salvation. Precisely thus did the 
Spanish iconoclasts make Mexico Roman Catholic. 
By the drawn sword of steel were the natives won 
and not by the conviction of head and heart. 

This method of conversion by force of arms pro- 
duced » a church, Christian in name but Aztec in 
practice. The people were still idolaters; the only 
difference being that where once they worshipped 
the Aztec idols now they bowed down before the 
innumerable images of the Roman Catholic 

5i 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Church. The Indian rites of worship were not 
one whit more idolatrous than the Romish system 
of saint worship. Hon. Matias Romero, who was 
for quite a while the Mexican minister to the 
United States, says, "It is true that a great many 
Mexicans, namely the Indians, do not know much 
about their religion and keep to their old idolatry, 
having only changed their idols, that is, replaced 
their old deities with the images of the Catholic 
Church." Latin America-Brown page 53. 

Dr. F. S. Borton, of the Methodist Theological 
Seminary, of Puebla, writes, "The bulk of the eight 
or ten millions of Indians here are but thinly white- 
washed pagan idolaters in spirit and practice, 
though not in name, because they are not only 
image worshippers as to the saints and the virgin, 
but they actually worship stones and pray to them, 
offering them fruit and food and fearing their dis- 
pleasure."* He tells of an interview with a priest 
in the mountains of that state, who told him that 
he once had occasion to take in pieces a large 
cross that the Indians were worshipping, and 
found that it contained a large stuffed owl, the 
Indian symbol of an evil spirit. It was this that 
they had been secretly worshipping and not the 
Cross. Lightning struck a church near Puebla 
and rent in twain the large image of the virgin, 
and lo it was a pagan idol of stone, one of the 



• Materialistic and Idolatrous Worship in Mexico. — Mrs. Butler, 
pace 6. 

52 



RELIGION. 

ancient goddesses of the Aztecs. Campbell tells 
of feasts of the Catholics, where the dance of the 
natives is the very same as that of the Aztecs be- 
fore the Teocali, facts that missionaries see for 
themselves year after year. 

Romish Idolatry. 

This idolatry has corrupted the entire Catholic 
body. Not only the ignorant Indian, but the high- 
er classes with Spanish blood in their veins, have 
gone after idols. The whole land is given to idol- 
atry. Mrs. J. W. Butler, for thirty-five years mis- 
sionary in Mexico, has calculated that in the 
churches alone there are 250,000 images. This 
says nothing of those in the homes. One can count 
as many as 25 at times in a single little cottage. 
With a population of fifteen million souls, the read- 
er can make an approximate estimate of the num- 
ber of idols in the Republic. It is not so difficult 
to find gods of wood and stone in Mexico as in 
Athens, and yet the philosophers used to affirm 
that men were more scarce than gods. There they 
were on every street corner. In Mexico they 
abound in all the homes. Like Ephesus with its 
silversmiths who plied the sale of the tiny images 
of the goddess of Diana, every town of Mexico has 
its image makers, and it is the same paying trade. 

The virgin of Guadalupe is the patroness of the 
Mexicans, and in all the homes and churches may 
be seen facsimiles of her image, which hangs in 
the cathedral erected to> her honor in the suburbs 

53 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

of Mexico City. The original image was miracu- 
lously (?) given. The story runs thus. Saturday 
morning, Dec. 8, 1531, an ignorant Indian named 
Juan Diego, was passing the rugged hill of Tep- 
ayac, where nothing but cactus grew. Suddenly 
he heard entrancing strains of celestial music, and 
about him shone a light so glorious that the very 
rocks seemed masses of opal, sapphire and bur- 
nished gold. Drawing near, he beheld a lady of 
angelic form and face. It was the virgin Mary. 
She charged him to tell the bishop to build there 
on that very spot a magnificent temple to her 
honor. Juan obeyed, but the bishop was incredu- 
lous, even after the third appearance and the same 
commission. At last she gave Juan a sign. She 
told him to climb to the top of the hill, as barren 
as a rock, and there he would find most exquisite 
roses blooming. He should cut and carry them to 
the bishop. Carefully he folded the flowers in his 
mantle and took them to the prelate. Reaching 
his presence and unfolding his "tilda," behold there 
painted on the blanket was a life size picture of the 
virgin. Far and wide spread the news, and every- 
where the image was accepted as a direct gift from 
heaven. The virgin had shown special favor to the 
nation. She had not dealt so with any other 
people. 

Those high in ecclesiastical authority begged 
the pope to recognize the apparition of the virgin. 
He referred the matter to the Congregation of 

54 




THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE. 



RELIGION. 

Rites for full investigation (?), and at last, in 1754, 
he set his seal of authority to the veracity of the 
Indian's story, and granted plenary indulgence in 
the hour of death to every one who should have 
upon his person one of the medals of "Our Lady 
Guadalupe." Benedict XIV declared from the 
Vatican the absolute truthfulness of the appear- 
ance and gave a ritual of devotion to be used in 
the celebration of the mass. W. E. Curtis, special 
commissioner from the United States to Mexico, 
wrote that, "according to the story, the portrait 
is stamped on the blanket of the shepherd, and 
that the Catholics of Mexico believe. But a close 
examination reveals the fact that it is done in oil 
colors and upon an ordinary piece of canvas, and 
that the pigments peal off like those of any other 
poorly executed piece of work."* Yet this is the 
basis of the devotion of the millions that look to 
Mary as the savior of sinners. 

The villa of Guadalupe, where stands the church 
honored with the presence of the image, is the 
Mecca of all devout Mexicans. "The ceremony of 
transferring the image from the cathedral of Mex- 
ico was one of the most gorgeous in all the relig- 
ious history of Mexico. All the ecclesiastical and 
civil authorities, the students, foreign ministers, 
monks and nuns formed in the procession and the 
church hells rang for days."* Every year the faith- 
ful pilgrims come from all parts of the country by 

* Capitals of South America, page 21. 

55 ... 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

the hundreds of thousands, some tramping hun- 
dreds of miles and carrying their children on their 
backs. 

This is the basis for the religion of Mexico. The 
virgin Mary has come to dwell among the Mexi- 
cans. They would place Juan's story along by the 
side of any book of the divinely inspired Word of 
God. Mary has come to pardon and save. And 
the little facsimile image of the original picture is 
worshipped and given their supreme devotion. She 
is the patroness of Mexico. She is mighty to save. 
Is this the gospel of Him who said, "I am the way, 
the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the 
Father but by Me"? 

Besides this image, each locality has its patron 
saint. These have fallen from the sky or have ap- 
peared in some miraculous way. These are recog- 
nized as intercessors of great power at the throne 
of God. From them, blessings are sought, and 
when granted, the suppliant makes a pilgrimage 
carrying a gift. One has lost his donkey, and 
when the saint restores the animal, the owner goes 
with a little donkey of silver as an expression of 
his gratitude. Another begs that his wounded leg 
be healed, and presents a tiny silver leg. Poorer 
pilgrims carry candles. Some have appeared in 
the farms of individuals and are their property. 
Others belong to local churches. They are a sure 
source of income and it is not strange that they 
are constantly falling from heaven (?). Saint Be- 

56 



RELIGION. 

nito will serve as example of others whose name 
is legion. To the black image prayers are direct- 
ed. The following is taken from the "nine days' 
prayer" : "Look down upon the long vista of liv- 
ing exiles in this vale of tears who are lost to God. 
Unite thy supplications with those of the chorus 
of holy virgins and OBTAIN THE PARDON 
OF MY SINS." The original image is covered 
with ribbons. If a wife has a husband that she 
does not love, she measures him with a ribbon 
while he is asleep and hangs the ribbon on the 
saint, making the prayer that he will bring about 
the speedy death of the husband. It is currently 
believed that it is effectual. Like all famous saints, 
paintings of this wonderful black image are sold 
in the market. These are bought and carried on 
the person of the purchaser. 

Besides these special saints numbering hundreds 
of thousands, scattered over the country, whose 
pictures are hung up in the homes and worshipped 
every day, each family will have its favorite saint 
and even each member of the household. There is 
no end to the number of saints. 

To escape the charge of idolatry, they tell us 
that they do not worship the images, that these 
visible representations help them to adore the in- 
visible spiritual beings. First of all, let it be said 
that whatever be the purpose, the practice is a 
positive transgression of the command not to 
make idols of anything in the heavens or on earth 

57 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

And if it were true that the Romanists looked be- 
yond the image to the invisible being, and to these 
celestial creatures directed their prayers, that too, 
is a direct violation of the divine injunction to 
worship the Lord God and Him alone. But the 
unvarnished truth is, these people do worship the 
very image before their eyes. Our converts con- 
fess that prior to their conversion they did look 
to the image, the piece of wood, stone or paper. 
They did expect them to answer their prayers. 
And that the accusation is true the facts we are 
witnessing every day attest. San Antonio is the 
patron saint of the neighboring village. He is 
a small doll-like creature. During a distressing 
drought not long ago, his devotees cried to him 
for rain. They waited at his feet for the refresh- 
ing showers, but the dry earth parched more and 
more. And the skies became more brazen. The 
people became angry at San Antonio and decided 
to punish him. To do so they took him from his 
favorite corner of the chapel and sent him far 
away to a strange chapel, and to humble him still 
more, hung him on the wall with his head down- 
ward. While these lines are written, a friend tells 
how she used to shut up in her trunk her many 
little saints or gods to punish them when she got 
angry with them. Another tells how she would 
whip them, hang them out in the rain, etc. What 
does all this mean but that the thought of the 
Catholics is 'centered on the little image, and not 

58 



RELIGION. 

on the heavenly being represented. And to see 
the devoted Romanists press tightly to their 
bosom the images with fond caresses and kisses, 
affords proof unanswerable that the material thing 
is the object of their love and worship. 

The sane, solemn, stubborn fact, proved by the 
religious conditions reigning anywhere and every- 
where, reinforced by the unbroken testimony of 
missionaries who spend scores of years living and 
moving in personal touch with the very heart of 
the people, making no allowance for the occasional 
verdict of the globe-trotters who go through the 
country on fast flying express trains, is that Ro- 
man Catholicism of Mexico is not one whit less 
idolatrous than the gross idol worship that stirred 
the soul of Paul on the streets of Athens, or that 
is seen in the far East today. 

A Christless Religion. 

From the conditions above named, result as in- 
evitably as night follows day, a Christless religion. 
Crosses abound, on hill tops, on church spires, on 
homes, on mounds by the way, but the Christ of 
the cross is a Stranger to the people. Their su- 
preme thought is fixed on the "Queen of heaven," 
whose heart, they say, being that of a woman, is 
more tender than that of Christ, and for that rea- 
son they appeal to her and not to Him. And He 
being her Son cannot deny her whatsoever she 
may ask for her devotees. It sounds most logical 

59 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

to the soul totally ignorant of the life and words 
of the Master, who passed through the world al- 
ways heeding the cries of the blind, lame, broken- 
hearted, and weeping with the Marys and the 
Marthas, and was ever calling over life's wild, rest- 
less sea to humanity, heavy hearted and foot-sore 
in the ways of sin, "Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest." 

"The two most popular books which the Roman 
Catholics use are 'The Litany of the Dolorous 
Virgin Mary,' and the 'Glories of Mary.' These 
books contain ascriptions to the virgin of nearly 
every attribute of the Almighty God; but the cli- 
max is reached when she is represented as having, 
by an act of the divine Father, superseded the 
adorable Savior, as being more tender-hearted to- 
ward the sinner than He can be. It is expressly 
taught in these books of devotion that the Lord 
Jesus Christ has assumed the administration of 
justice and punishment toward men, and resigned 
to her the functions of grace and mercy. So the 
poor, misguided souls are taught to transfer their 
appeals and hope to her in such prayers as these : 
'O Mary, we poor sinners know no refuge but in 
thee. Thou art our only Hope. To thee we in- 
trust our salvation.' This shocking inversion of 
the gospel is then wound up in a grand doxology, 
putting her on an equality with the adorable Trin- 
ity, at which I tremble as I copy it : T salute thee, 

60 



RELIGION. 

O great Mediatrix of peace between God and man. 
O mother of Jesus, or ! Lord and love of all men 
and of God, to thee be honor and blessing with 
the Father and the Holy Spirit/ "* 

Mariolatry — the worship of the Virgin mother 
— and not Christology, has become the religion of 
the people. Their hope of pardon rests with her, 
and the innumerable army of saints that do her 
bidding. If Christ has a place in their theology, 
He is SO' far removed from the worshippers, by 
means of the orders of saints, angels, archangels 
and the virgin, that He is no longer Mediator. 
The only Christ known to them is the babe Jesus 
lying helpless in its mother's arms, the Christ dead 
on the cross, or ghastly dead in the grave. He is 
always thorn-crowned, "blood in streams, and 
black clots and cakes covers His forehead and 
face, and fills His eyes and mouth and nostrils," 
streams of blood drip down from His limbs, with 
spear-thrusts in His side, and the great open 
gashes in His hands and feet made by the spikes 
that nailed Him to the accursed cross, His eyes 
turned heavenward, with unspeakable agony and 
horror written over His countenance. For ten 
years we have gone out and in among the Mexican 
Catholics, and not once can we recall seeing any 
sign or symbol of the Christ enthroned and crown- 
ed with glory and honor at the right hand of the 
Father. They have erased from their creed the 



* Mexico in Transition. — Butler, page 60. 

61 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

doctrine of the ever-living and pardoning Savior 
who has opened the way of access into the pres- 
ence of the reconciled Father, where there is sal- 
vation full and free. The gospel of the Christ, 
resurrected and bringing abundant pardon, glad 
hope, sweet peace and triumphant power, has been 
placed under the ecclesiastical ban of Romanism, 
and the spiritual destitution seems vocal with the 
hopeless wail of Mary in the garden on the morn- 
ing of the resurrection: "They have taken away 
my Lord and I know not where they have laid 
him." Is there hope for those who thus rid the 
gospel of its Christ and crown Mary queen of all? 

A False System of Salvation Through Good Works. 

With the Roman Catholics of Mexico, not by 
faith in the atoning blood of the Lamb of God, 
are they to be saved, but by deeds of self-torture, 
even to the shedding of one's own blood. These 
are the shibboleths that admit the souls through 
the gates of glory. The bodies are mortified by 
prolonged fasting or sleeping on beds without 
mattresses. Ladies wear around their waists cords 
of horse hair or pricking ixtle till the blood oozes 
from the body. During the holy seasons a band 
of netted iron with points is worn next to the skin. 
Every parish has its "exercises" into which the 
most faithful are admitted during the nine days 
preceding holy week. In the larger towns as 
many as a thousand will enter these "ejercicios." 

62 




CROWNED WITH THORNS, DOING PENANCE ON HER KNEES. 




SCOURGES USED IN DOING PENANCE. 



RELIGION. 

They eat cold bread, sleep on the bare floor and 
flog their body with scourges. These whip cords 
of penance are horse-hair ropes with knotted 
thongs at the ends, or iron chains, on every second 
or third link of which are pieces of iron with sharp 
points. The penitent throws these over the shoul- 
ders from each side, driving these little spikes into 
the flesh and bringing out blood in profusion. 
Penance is most meritorious where the devotees 
will crawl for miles on their bare knees to the 
shrine of some famous saint to leave on the rocks 
behind the imprint of their bleeding knees. 

The following testimony is taken from the pen 
of Madame Calderon, the wife of the first Spanish 
Ambassador to Mexico. She was a Romanist. 
"The other night I was present at a much stranger 
scene, at the discipline performed by the men, ad- 
mission having been procured for us by certain 
means, private but powerful. Accordingly, when 
it was dark, enveloped from head to foot in large 
cloaks, and without the slightest idea of what it 
was, we went through the streets to the church of 
San Augustine. The scene was curious. About 
one hundred and fifty men, enveloped in cloaks, 
their faces entirely concealed, were assembled in 
the body of the church. A monk had just mount- 
ed the pulpit. His discourse was a rude but very 
forcible description of the torments prepared for 
impenitent sinners. The effect of the whole was 
very solemn. It appeared like the preparation 

63 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

or the execution of a multitude of condemned 
criminals. When the discourse was finished they 
all joined in prayer with much fervor and enthusi- 
asm, beating their breasts and falling upon their 
faces. Then the monk stood up and read several 
passages of scripture descriptive of the sufferings 
of Christ. The organ then struck up the Miserere, 
and all of a sudden the church was plunged in pro- 
found darkness, all but a sculptured representa- 
tion of the crucifixion, which seemed to hang in 
the air illuminated. I felt rather frightened and 
would have been glad to leave the church, but it 
would have been impossible in the darkness. Sud- 
denly a terrible voice in the dark cried, 'My broth- 
ers, when Christ was fastened to the pillar by the 
Jews, He was scourged.' At these words the 
bright figure disappeared and the darkness became 
total. Suddenly we heard the sound of hundreds 
of scourges descending upon the bare flesh. I can 
not conceive of anything more horrible. Before 
ten minutes had passed the sound became splash- 
ing, from the blood that was flowing. Incredible 
as it may seem, this awful penance continued for 
half an hour and without intermission. 

We could not leave the church, but it was per- 
fectly sickening, and had I not been able to take 
hold of 1 the Senora's hand and feel something hu- 
man beside me, I could have fancied myself trans- 
ported into a congregation of evil spirits. Now 
and then, but very seldom, a suppressed groan 

6 4 



RELIGION. 

was heard, and occasionally the voice of the monk 
encouraged them by ejaculations or by short pass- 
ages of Scripture. Sometimes the organ struck up 
and the poor wretches, in a faint voice, tried to 
join the Miserere. The sound of the scourging is 
indescribable. At the end of half an hour, a little 
bell was rung and the voice of the monk was heard 
calling upon them to desist; but such was their en- 
thusiasm that the horrible lashing continued louder 
and more fierce than ever. 

In vain he entreated them not to kill themselves, 
and assured them that heaven would be satisfied, 
and that human nature could not endure beyond 
a certain point. No answer but the loud sound of 
scourges, which are, many of them, of iron, with 
sharp points that enter the flesh. At length, as if 
they were perfectly exhausted, the sound grew 
fainter, and little by little ceased altogether. . . . 
They say that the church floor is frequently cov- 
ered with blood after one of those penances, and 
that the other day a man died from the wounds 
received. 

In the Santa Teresa convent, they showed us a 
crown of thorns, worn by one of them by way of 
penance. It is made of iron, so that the nails, en- 
tering inward, run into the head and make it 
bleed. We visited the cells and were horror struck 
at the self-inflicted tortures. Each bed consisted 
of a wooden plank raised in the middle, and on 
days of penance crossed by wooden bars. The pil- 

65 

M-5 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

low is wooden. The nun lies on this penitential 
couch embracing- the cross. Round her waist she 
wears a band with iron points turning inward; on 
her breast a cross with nails of which the points 
enter the flesh. Thus after having scourged her- 
self with a whip covered with iron nails, she lies 
down a few hours on the wooden bars and rises 
at four o'clock."* 

A Religion Without Spirituality. 
Little or no account is taken of the Ten Com- 
mandments. The Sabbath is the high day of the 
week, when all the surrounding country comes to 
buy or sell. The market place is usually in front 
of the Roman Catholic church. The buyers en- 
ter to recite their prayers to some saint, and come 
out to make their purchases for the week. On 
that day the bull fight draws its largest crowd. 
With hundreds of thousands the Seventh Com- 
mandment is a dead letter. The most pious (?) 
will use the name of God in an ordinary conversa- 
tion in such a way that it will make one's ear tin- 
gle. The birth of the Savior will be celebrated 
and the festivities close with an elegant wine sup- 
per and a great ball, that will last till early morn- 
ing. The bull fighter has his favorite saint, and if 
he is mortally wounded the priest confesses him 
and gets him ready for heaven (?). The bartender 
is not barred from entering the innermost circle 
of the pious Romanists. In our town the leading 



* Life in Mexico. Calderon de la Barca, page 213. 

66 



RELIGION. 

liquor dealer is one of the most faithful of the par- 
ish. It is not unusual to see the image of the 
favorite saint hanging over the bar where is dealt 
out day and half the night the accursed drink that 
sends men staggering into a drunkard's grave and 
a drunkard's hell. Souls will kneel in the church 
and say their prayers, and all the while watch the 
passersby, as the Tibetan sets his prayer wheel 
going and goes off on a hunt, expecting his pray- 
ers to ascend with each revolution of the wheel. 

Of Mexico it has been said, and at heart she is 
still the same, "The canonization of a saint, the 
dedication of a church, the concession of a privi- 
lege to some religious community, the appoint- 
ment of a bishop were observed as feasts, with bull 
fights, masquerades and comedies, which were at- 
tended by the archbishop and the principal ecclesi- 
astical dignitaries." The church of Guadalupe, 
where hangs the image of the virgin, is the Mecca 
of Meccas, and ought to be the holiest spot on 
Mexican soil. Of the religious rites practiced 
there, the Rev. H. W. Brown writes, "Often have 
the Indians, dressed in native costume, danced 
their old sacred dances before the altar within the 
temple. Without, the town was crowded with 
Indians, and at many of the booths some were 
drinking and others gambling, while under the 
cover of darkness worse vices were 'practiced. So 
great has been the scandal that one caustic Mexi- 
can remarked that the trinity worshipped there 

6 7 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

were Venus, Bacchus and Birjan."* If holy week 
is the holiest of the year, its influence should be 
manifest in the life of the people. Of the one just 
passed, the leading daily of the Capital, the Mexi- 
can Herald, remarks : "Holy week greatly increas- 
ed the work of the courts and the police depart- 
ment. Last Friday alone, the fourth correctional 
court received ninety-nine cases; of these, seventy- 
four had resulted in bloodshed. Of the latter, 
fifty-three had to be removed to the Juarez hos- 
pital. The other courts received large numbers of 
infractions of the law. It is stated that the record 
of holy week this year is higher than for the ten 
previous years." 

A Mercenary Religion. 
Roman Catholicism is a most cunningly devised 
scheme to extort money from its votaries. In 
1850, when the Reform Laws were passed, the 
wealth of the church in Mexico was $300,ooo,ooo.t 
One-third of all the wealth of the country was 
theirs. The archbishop alone had an annual in- 
come of $100,000, that of Puebla $100,000, and so 
on down the scale. The income of the national 
church was $30,000,000 annually. The nuns alone 
drew $810,000 from their investments. Licenses 
for sin were sold. The "bull of composition" was 
an enactment by which any one having stolen 
goods needed not to return them if he bought a 
spiritual license; and not to allow too much steal- 

•Latin America, Brown, p. 109. 

f Mexico Coming Into Light, Butler, p. 57. 

68 



RELIGION. 

ing, the right was limited to fifty each year.* 
Waddy Thompson said that he would not give in 
exchange the Roman Catholic financial system, its 
doctrines of purgatory and its power to get money 
from the people, for the power of taxation of any 
government on earth. He wrote of what he had 
seen during his stay in Mexico as Ambassador of 
the United States. 

Raffles for souls are held in the churches. It is 
a lottery plan to get souls out of purgatory (?). 
From an announcement of one of these, posted on 
a church door, a copy of which lies before us 
as we write, we take the following data: To at- 
tract the attention of the devoted, the notice has 
printed in large letters, "Grand Raffle for Souls." 
For a specified sum tickets are sold and the holder 
is entitled to a chance in the final drawing of the 
lottery. The person who should receive the lucky 
number, would 'get the benefit of the mass which 
would bring their loved ones out of the terrible 
fires of purgatory. The scale of dates and prices 
are given, closing with an exhortation to the faith- 
ful to think on this golden opportunity to rescue 
the loved one from the sufferings of the lower 
world. It is not strange that Father Gavassi 
should style the dogma of purgatory the El Do- 
rado of the priest, the best gold mine of the papal 
system. Baptisms, prayers for the dead, marriages, 
special masses, etc., etc., etc., are all sources of 



* Mexico Coming into Light. — Butler, page 56. 

69 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

revenue for the church. The devotees must bring 
their gifts to the innumerable saints, all of which 
goes into the pocket of the holy (?) father. Each 
district of the town competes to see which will 
carry up to the church the largest quantity of 
candles, all of which are sold, and the amount goes 
into the local treasury. 

A Corrupt Priesthood. 
Years ago the Abbe Emanuel Domelech was 
sent as a special envoy from the church of Rome 
to investigate the religious conditions in Mexico. 
He was a prominent clergyman of the Roman 
Catholic Church. He reported of the priests, 
"They make merchandise of the sacraments, and 
make money by every ceremony, without thinking 
that they are guilty of simony, and expose them- 
selves to the censures of the Church. If Roman 
justice had its course in Mexico, one-half of the 
clergy would be excommunicated. The well-in- 
structed priests, disinterested and animated by a 
truly apostolic spirit, constitute an insignificant 
minority. The priests carry their love of family 
to that of paternity. In my travels in the interior 
of Mexico, many pastors have refused me hospi- 
tality, in order to prevent me from seeing their 
nieces and cousins and their children. It is diffi- 
cult to determine the character of these connec- 
tions. Priests who are recognized as fathers of 
families are by no means rare. The people con- 
sider it natural enough, and do not rail at the con- 

7° 



RELIGION. 

duct, except when they are not contented with 
one wife. I remember that one of the prelates 
passing through a village near the episcopal city, 
the priests said to him, 'Sir, have the goodness to 
bless my children and their mother.' There was a 
roomful. Can a clergy of such a character make 
saints? I doubt."* The statement is not over- 
drawn. Every missionary in Mexico knows that 
the charges here made against the priests of Mex- 
ico are literally true. Pages might be written of 
the dark deeds of the Mexican priesthood, much 
of which iniquity is done in ours and the neighbor- 
ing towns, but they are too shameful to be told. 
Suffice it to add that Roman Catholicism of Mexico 
is contributing her full share to the fulfillment of 
the Apocalyptic vision of the "woman arrayed in 
purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and 
precious stones, having a golden cup in her hand 
full of abominations and filthiness of her fornica- 
tion." And upon her forehead was a name written, 
"MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE 
MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINA- 
TIONS OF THE EARTH." 

An Enemy of the Bible. 

The first edition of the entire Bible in Spanish 
and Latin, printed in Mexico, appeared in 1833, 
fully three hundred years after the Spanish con- 
quest. During all those three hundred years there 



* Mexico in Transition. — Butler, page 33. 

71 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

was not a sign of the Word of God even in muti- 
lated form to give light to the people. And when 
this edition was made, with its copious notes, 
which, like the traditions of the Pharisees, made 
the word of no effect, explaining away the truth, 
it was in 25 volumes and cost from $150 to $200, 
which placed it far beyond the reach of the com- 
mon people. Two editions (Spanish) have been 
brought from Spain, those of Scio and Amat. The 
former is more frequently found, but it too, is is- 
sued in five bulky volumes and costs $35. 

And these are not read by the people. Mrs. J. 
W. Butler sent to the colporteurs a list of ques- 
tions, from whose answers we take the following 
facts: 1. Very few of the people know what the 
Scriptures are. Even the priests rarely possess a 
Bible, and of course do not know what it contains. 
2. Where a Bible with the notes has accidentally 
fallen into the hands of the people, the priests ad- 
vise them not to read it, for they are not able to 
understand it. She tried to buy a copy of the 
Scio or Amat versions in the book stores of Mex- 
ico City, and not one copy was to be found in all 
of them, though they carried in stock a large sup- 
ply of Catholic books. A Catholic now converted, 
declared that in his parish in Cuba, of eight thou- 
sand souls, he was the only person who had a 
Bible, and from his experience in Mexico, he af- 
firms that conditions exactly similar prevail there. 

On the evangelical Bible, which the Protestant 

72 



RELIGION. 

Church seeks to place in every home in Mexico, 
and which is sold for twenty-five cents, U. S. cur- 
rency, and often given away, the Church of Rome 
wages unceasing war. It is styled the bad book 
of the devils. During all these centuries, our 
Bible has been under the ban of the Church, and 
over the heads of the people the priests hold the 
threat of excommunication, forbidding them to 
look between its blessed pages. The first copies 
of the Word of God to enter the Republic came 
through the American army, and even after the 
Reform Laws took the reign of power from the 
hands of the bishop, the sword of > fanaticism has 
been unsheathed to drive the great Book from the 
land. So intense has been this enmity that the 
first Christians had to hide in the caves to read its 
sacred pages. And still it is a common experience 
for the village priest to call for all the Bibles that 
the colporteur may have sold in the town and 
make a public bonfire of our holy Bible to the 
amusement of the people. Because her deeds 
are evil, Rome hates the lamp of life and does her 
utmost to extinguish its last ray, the lost soul's 
only hope. 

Such is Roman Catholicism of Mexico. And 
does this system of white-washed paganism lead 
the soul to •» God? Is its brazen-faced idolatry less 
culpable than that of Baal, the Sun god against 
which the ancient prophets hurled the anathemas 
of divine displeasure? Has our God changed that 

73 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

He may take pleasure in this blind worship of 
stocks and stones? If the Spirit spoke the whole 
truth, saying that no man comes to the Father for 
salvation except through the Son Jesus Christ, 
where is the hope of this cunningly devised plan 
of pardon that places Mary on the Intercessor's 
throne and leaves the sinner to rest upon his good 
works for acceptance at the bar of the offended 
God? How can that church be trusted as the 
pillar and ground of the truth, when the spirit of 
mammon is woven into the very warp and woof of 
its being, and it 'is dominated and directed by false 
prophets that come in sheep's clothing, while in- 
wardly they are ravening wolves and spare not the 
flock, waging eternal war upon the 'Word of God 
that would build up all who follow its divine 
light and give them an inheritance among 
them that are sanctified? Where > is the hope 
for the creed that has torn from its pages 
all that inspires faith in Christ, the blood 
atonement of the Lamb of > God, simple trust in 
the regenerative power of the Spirit, rejects the 
divine Book of books, and substitutes Mary as 
mediator, good works as the basis of pardon, and 
the bulls of popes as the only authoritative light 
of life? Verily, there is none, literally none. The 
hand-writing on the wall has passed sentence, and 
the divine fiat has gone forth, so clear that he who 
runs may read : Roman Catholicism in Mexico has 
been weighed in the balances and found wanting. 

74 



CHAPTER V. 
OUR FIELD. 

It has been most unfortunate that the different 
denominations have not divided the Republic into 
sections, in order that each church might be as- 
signed its share of the field, and be made respon- 
sible for its evangelization. This failure has 
brought about conditions such, that while there is 
no missionary force at work capable of effecting 
the evangelization of the land either in this or the 
coming generation, still the denominational agen- 
cies are scattered all over the country. The lead- 
ing evangelical boards have workers in the north, 
the south, the east, the west and the center of the 
land. Most commendable cordiality has character- 
ized the relations of these ecclesiastical bodies, one 
with the other, yet they must of necessity overlap, 
and with the different forms of worship and de- 
nominational names, fail to present to the enemy 
an unbroken front. Not all the converts can ap- 
preciate that while under different denominational 
nomenclature, we are at heart one in Christ. The 
Roman Catholics make merchandise of the differ- 
ences. 

There is reason for special gratitude that in the 
Providence of God other denominations have not 
entered our field, save two or three stations. To 
say that it is our field is not meant that it has been 
marked off by a commission of the churches and 

75 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

assigned to the Associate Reformed Presbyterian 
body. Only this, that from the centers where our 
work has been operated, we have pushed out in 
different directions and all the territory outlined is 
yet unoccupied. It is virgin soil. 

Ours is a wide field. It covers a territory of 
31,121 square miles, 'and contains a population of 
706,799 souls. It lies in the northern part of the 
state of Vera Cruz, the southern part of Tamauli- 
pas and the entire eastern portion of San Luis 
Potosi. The states are divided into "cantones" or 
districts, and these into "municipios" or counties. 
Each district has its capital* and each "municipio" 
its county seat. 

1. The Vera Cruz Field. 

Vera Cruz is a long state, reaching from the 
Panuco river, on the banks of which stands Tarn- 
pico, to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a distance of 
four hundred and seventy-six miles. At times it 
measures only thirty miles in width. It has a cli- 
mate that ranges all the way between the sweltering 
heat of the coast to the cold zone of the peaks that 
mount up 19,000 ft. toward the sky. The state is 
rich in forests, in which abound a great variety of 
animals. Besides the immense farming interests, 
wide stretches of territory are devoted to cattle 
raising, the cattle being driven to the coast and 
shipped. Oil wells are being bored in the northern 
part of the state, some of which produce as much 
as 8,000 barrels daily. The population is very dense, 

76 



OUR FIELD. 

and among them many Indian tribes: Totonaco, 
Huasteco, Popoloco, Otomi, Tepehua, Zapoteco, 
Chimanteco, Mazateco and Mixteco. All these 
have their own distinct dialect, and thus present 
peculiar difficulties to the gospel worker. A rail- 
road from Vera Cruz to Mexico City crosses the 
state, dividing it into two almost equal parts. To 
the north of this line lies our field, embracing seven 
districts of the state. This section* contains 11,169 
square miles and 346,999 souls. In all this long 
stretch of territory there is no means of travel 
except on horseback, in a two^wheel cart, or in a 
boat along the coast. A railway line has been 
surveyed from Tampico through this section, but 
it leads over hills so high that it will well nigh 
empty the banks of Wall Street to project the line. 
The ' 'cant ones' ' are as follows : 

Ozuluama. Population of "Canton," 38,890. "Municipios" ; 
Panuco with 10,227 souls; Ozuluama, 8,325; Tantima, 6,674; 
Tamalin, 3,875 ; Tampico Alto, 3,671 ; Citlaltepec, 3,460 ; Pueblo 
Viejo, 2,658. 

Chicontepec. Population of "Canton," 56,389. "Municipios" : 
Ixhuatlan, 14,226; Chicontepec, 12,175; Huayacocotla, 9,848; 
llmallan, 7,517; Zacualpan, 6,698; Tlachichilco, 5,925. 

Tuxpan. Population of "Canton," 58,282. "Municipios": 
Tuxpan, 13,518; Temapache, 13,075; Tamiahua, 9,119; Tepet- 
zintla, 5,526 ; Tihuallan, 4,287 ; Amatlan, 4,077 ; Tancoco, 3,469 ; 
San Antonio Chinampa, 3,252; Castillo de Teayo, 1,958. 

Papantla. Population of "Canton," 48,994. "Municipios": 
Papantla, 23,697; Gutierrez Zamora, 4,598; El Espinal, 4,124; 
Coyutla, 4,042 ; Coxquihui, 3,265 ; Zozocolco de Hidalgo, 3,049 ; 

77 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Coahuitlan, 1,691; Coazintla, 1,167; Tecocutla, 1,539; Santo 
Domingo Mextitlanl, 529; Mecatlan, 1,293. 

Jalacinto. Population of "Canton," 67,016. "Municipios" : 
Atzalan, 15,564; Altotonga, 14,957; Perote, 9,836; Jalacinto, 
8,506 ; H. Tlapacoyan, 8,074 ; Martinez de la Torre, 8,054 ; Las 
Minas, 2,025. 

Misantla. Population of "Canton," 21,250. "Municipios": 
Misantla, 11,047; Nautla, 2,808; Juchique de Ferrer, 2,646; 
Vega de Alatorre, 2,184; Yecuatla, 1.440; Voliap, 1,125. 

Tantoyuca. Population of "Canton," 56,179. "Municipios": 
Tantoyuca, 24,126; Tempoal, 11,838; Platon Sanchez, 5,891; 
Chontla, 5,438; Ixcatepec, 4,506; Chiconamel, 4,380. 

Principal Towns: Panuco, population, 1,733; Tantoyuca, 
2,984; Chicontepec, 1,969; Tuxpan, 5,455; Papantla, 4,542; 

Jalacinto, 2,785; Misantla, 3,296. 

2. The Tamaulipas Field. 

The state of Tamaulipas has 250 miles of coast 
line along the Gulf from Tampico to the Texas 
border. Down through its center extends the 
Sierra Madre Oriental, enriching the state with 
mines that hold treasures of gold, silver, iron, cop- 
per, marble and asphalt, • and forests that abound 
with fine woods. The soil produces crops of corn, 
sugar, coffee, tobacco, besides a great variety of 
fruits. From Monterey a railroad traverses the 
state, reaching Tampico, affording an outlet for 
its commerce. 

Of the four districts of the state, the most south- 
erly falls to our church. It comprises about 
5,625 square miles, and has a population of 44,579 
Souls. Its territorial divisions are : 

78 



OUR FIELD. 

Southern District. Population of "Canton," 44,579. "Muni- 
cipios" : Tampico, 20,000 ; Aldama, 3,290 ; Altamira, 3,941 ; 
Magiscatzin, 3,302; Xicotencatl, 4,196; Quintero, 2,624; An- 
tiguo Morelos, 4.576; Nuevo Morelos, 1,126; Gomez Farias, 
1,524. 

The principal town, Tampico; population, 17,000 souls. 
Lying at the juncture of the Panuco and the Tamesi rivers, 
six miles up from the coast, it ranks next to Vera Cruz as the 
finest harbor on the Gulf coast. Jetties placed at the mouth 
of the river at a cost of $3,000,000, have made the harbor an 
exceptionally good one. The ships enter even to the very 
town, landing their cargo at the wharfs, which have been 
erected at a cost of $1,500,000. The government has erected 
there one of the most magnificent custom houses in the Repub- 
lic. The Standard Oil Company have located at this point 
branch offices and works which afford employment for many 
who flock from different parts of the country. Quite a large 
proportion of the population is of foreign nationality. For 
the English-speaking element, Rev. N. E. Pressly has held 
services twice a month for years. The companies that con- 
tract for the unloading of the ships, bring from the West 
India islands hundreds of negroes to do the work. For these 
Dr. Pressly also preaches twice a month in a chapel provided 
by the company. 

3. The San Luis Potosi Field. 

The territory of the state of San Luis Potosi 
naturally divides itself into two sections, the low- 
lands and the tablelands. The latter comprise ten 
of the thirteen districts of the entire state. 'Ehe 
altitudes range all the way from 4000 ft. to 9000 
ft. above sea level, the highest parts being found 
in the extreme west. In these high regions are 
found rich mines of gold, silver, copper and salt, 
the latter producing from seventy to eighty per 
cent, of chloride of sodium. This section is exceed- 

79 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

ingly mountainous, the hills so precipitous and 
rugged that agriculture becomes an impossibility. 
Nature, however, that great economizer of forces, 
has provided for the emergency, and even on these 
impregnable slopes thrives the maguey, resem- 
bling the century plant to be seen in the public 
parks of the United States. From the leaves is 
made "ixtli," a fiber used extensively in the manu- 
facture of carpets, rugs, ropes and bagging. The 
Aztecs weaved the fiber into beautiful blankets 
and used the thorns as needles and pins. Certain 
fibers of maguey, it is alleged, will produce excel- 
lent paper pulp. If true, it will effect a revolution 
in the manufacture of paper at no distant date, 
when the dense forests can no longer meet the de- 
mand. On the plains are large tracts of land under 
cultivation, which yield immense harvests of corn 
and sugar cane. 

Ten of the districts of the state lie on the table- 
lands. Of these, six belong to our field. These 
have an area of about 10,862 square miles of terri- 
tory, and a population of 216,095 souls. The 
"cantones" and "municipios" are: 

Santa Maria del Rio. Population of "Canton," 38,257. 
"Municipios": Santa Maria del Rio, 21,058; Reyes, 10,917; 
Tierra Nueva, 6,282. 

Guadalcazar. Population of "Canton," 30,263. "Munici- 
pios": Guadalcazar, 18,385; Iturbide, 8,027; Arista, 3,851. 

Cerritos. Population of "Canton," 30,792. "Municipios": 
Cerritos, 16,358 ; Carbonera, 6,771 ; San Nicolas, 7,703- 

80 



OUR FIELD. 

Ciudad del Maiz. Population of "Canton," 31,172. "Muni- 
cipios" : Ciudad del Maiz, 28,909 ; San Nicholas, 2,263. 

Hidalgo. Population of "Canton," 44,094. "Municipios" : 
Alaquines, 17,657; Rayon, 12,446; Lagunillas, 6,073; La Palma, 
4,504; Santa Catarina, 3,414. 

Rioverde. Population of "Canton," 41,517. "Municipios" : 
Rioverde, 20,827; Ciudad Fernandez, 9,926; San Ciro, 6,806; 
Pastora, 3,958. 

The Huasteca Potosina. 

The lowlands of the state embrace the three re- 
maining districts. These constitute the Huasteca 
Potosina, embracing 3465 square miles, and a popu- 
lation of 99,126. Unlike the higher regions of the 
state, there the rainfall is more sure and the soil 
rewards the sower with abundant harvests of corn, 
sugar cane and coffee. The magnificent pastures 
make cattle-raising most profitable, carloads of 
cattle being shipped to Mexico City or across the 
Gulf to Havana. 

Of the population, a large per cent, are pure- 
blooded Indians of the Aztec race. They live up 
in the mountains, apart from the other races, and 
are exceedingly shy and reticent. On market 
days, the Sabbath, they come down from the 
mountains, make their purchases, and return to 
their "jacales." Love for rum is their besetting 
sin, and to buy "aguadiente" they will barter away 
during the year the better part of the little crop of 
corn they have gathered from their patches on the 
mountain sides. One night, after a hard ride of 

81 

M-6 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

one hundred and six miles during the two days, we 
reached the banks of the Tamazunchale river, to 
find that the town lay on the opposite side. It was 
dark, and the stream swollen level with the banks. 
On the side of the river where we waited were a 
number of Indian huts. From one to another we 
rode, asking for shelter. Not one responded. 
Knowing that we were not of their tribe, they left 
us to sit on the river bank all night, after two days' 
ride in the rain. This reticence, with the added 
fact that they speak the Aztec dialect, renders 
missionary work among them rather discouraging. 
Of this region, the districts and "municipios" are : 

Valles. Population of "Canton," 22,001. "Municipios": 
Valles, 10,681; Tanquin, 2,033; Guerrero, 2,196; Tanlajas, 
4,272; San Vicente, 2,819. 

Tancanhuitz. Population of "Canton," 40,860. "Municipfos" : 
Tancanhuitz, 5,975; Coxcatlan, 4,211 ; Huehuetlan, 4,494; Tam- 
pamalon, 4,298; Xilitla, 10,838; Aquismon, 8,399; San Antonio, 
2,645, 

Tamazunchale. Population of "Canton," 36,265. "Munici- 
pios": Tamazunchale, 17,506; San Martin, 9,485; Tampacan, 
3,859; Axtla, 5,415- 

Principal Towns of the San Luis Potosi Field. 

Cerritos. The town proper has a population of 3,672 and is 
the chief center of the immense "ixtli" trade for the districts 
of Guadalcazar, Cerritos and a territory that stretches for 
hundreds of miles back into the State of Tamaulipas, being 
the nearest railroad station. Great quantities are shipped to 
Europe and other parts of the world. It is a mission station 
of strategic importance. 

82 



OUR FIELD. 

Ciudad del Maiz. Before the railroad from Tampico to 
San Luis Potosi was projected through the state, Ciudad del 
Maiz was the principal point on the stage line between these 
two cities and was a center of great commercial activity. The 
railroad left the town thirty miles to the north, and conse- 
quently no little of the commercial interests shifted to other 
places. Still being the largest town of the district as well as 
of the adjoining district of Hidalgo, it offers splendid ad- 
vantages as headquarters for gospel effort in that region. 

Rioverde. With Ciudad Fernandez, its suburb, it has a 
population of 8,035 and is situated midway between San Luis 
Potosi and Tampico, on a branch road that connects with the 
main line between these two cities. Lying in the heart of 
a large valley covered with a network of irrigating ditches 
that bring the water from a large, never-failing lake up in 
the mountains twelve miles away, situated on the banks of a 
beautiful river that issues out of a huge gorge in the moun- 
tains not far distant, nestling amid hundreds and hundreds 
of orange groves, While on all sides stretch toward the hills 
far-reaching fields of sugar cane with the high towers of the 
mills where the sugar is made, the town is one of the most 
beautiful in the state. Great quantities of corn and sugar are 
shipped each year and hundreds of car loads of oranges are 
sent out each fall. 

Voiles. The town lies at the foothills that rise up to the 
table lands and on the National Railway that traverses the 
state. Its population is 1,412. Lying at the very gateway of 
the "Huasteca Potosina," the railroad station through which 
all the exports and imports must pass, it becomes the most 
strategic point in all that section of the state. From there the 
Gospel can best reach out into all the "Huasteca Potosina." 

Tancanhuitz. Fifty miles from Valles, the town lies in the 
very heart of the Huasteca Potosina. Its population is 1,607 
and is situated in a region so mountainous that once we felt 
that a friend of that place almost spoke the naked truth when 
he remarked that not the railroad but the airship was the hope 
of his part of the country. The best roads are mere donkey 
trails. Great quantities of coffee are shipped from the sur- 

83 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

rounding plantations, though it has to be paddled down the 
river in simple canoes requiring several weeks to reach Tam- 
pico, or on muleback to Valles, one hundred miles from many 
of the coffee fields. With all its defying difficulties, it offers 
a most magnificent missionary base of operations and some 
worker will one day gather a glorious harvest of souls and 
even though Indians, they will be jewels for His crown with 
whom there is neither Jew, nor Greek nor Scythian nor bond 
nor free but all one in Him, saved by His grace. 



84 



CHAPTER VI. 
PLANS AND IDEALS. 

Pascal, the French philosopher and theologian, 
once said that Jesus Christ is the center of every- 
thing and the object of everything. The aphorism 
sets forth the supreme and all-determining aim of 
all our missionary activities. It is not philan- 
thropy, though the gospel herald is a good Sam- 
aritan, who cares for the bleeding unfortunate by 
the roadsides of life. Ours is not a system of po- 
litical economy, though the entire trend of our 
teaching is toward the material uplift ■ of the 
nation. The gospel transforms the home, social 
surroundings and makes all things new, yet the 
primary end of missions is not sociological. We 
do not Come to foreign lands to teach the people 
the latest methods of agriculture, medicine, com- 
merce or scientific investigation. Some of these 
result, while others do not. However, any of them 
are entirely accidental. To borrow the words of 
the president of Roberts College, "the aim of for- 
eign missions is to make Jesus Christ known to 
the world." Nothing short of this will satisfy the 
conditions of the great commission. And nothing 
less will justify the expenditure of men and money. 
To make known Christ and His 'saving gospel, is 
the one, underlying, all-directing, all-determining 
aim of our Mexican Mission. That the Mexicans 
may know Him, whom to know is life eternal, 

85 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

that they may be found clothed upon with that 
righteousness which is by the faith of the Son of 
God, that they may grow up into Him in all 
things and awake at last in His likeness; these are 
our ideals and toward these ends we plan and 
preach and » pray. 

To reach this final goal of all our missionary en- 
deavor, the work must pass through two distinct 
stages of life. First, the evangelizing forces are 
to be organized for operation, and then along dis- 
tinct lines of development the work proceeds. 

ORGANIZATION. 
The Foreign Missionary and His Work. 

The mission field is divided into districts, and 
these are placed under the direction of the foreign 
missionaries, who superintend the entire range of 
evangelizing forces within the bounds of the dis- 
tricts. The size of these sections depends on the 
supply of foreign missionaries. If this is limited, 
as always has been the case, each missionary must 
shoulder the responsibility of a larger area. The 
missionary superintendent selects the most central 
and accessible point of the district, where he makes 
his home, and that becomes the base of evangeliz- 
ing operations. From that strategic center he 
labors toward the most economical direction of 
gospel forces, that will issue in the evangelization 
of the district and the building up of a spiritual 
church that will be worthy of Him who is the chief 
Corner Stone. While the missionary is pastor of 

86 



PLANS AND IDEALS. 

the congregation where he resides, he becomes the 
overseer of a parish of souls numbering hundreds 
of thousands and scattered over thousands of 
square miles. 

The work of the missionary is most varied and 
exacting. On horseback he makes long tours 
through the towns and ranches, preaching 
and talking the gospel. It often happens that the 
head of a home becomes a friend of the truth, and 
that home is made the meeting place for the gos- 
pel services. Regular visits are made till some 
are converted and ask for baptism. There is no 
body of elders to help the missionary decide 
whether the applicant gives evidence of having 
been born again, or is merely deceived by the 
arch enemy of souls. On his shoulders falls the 
responsibility. And the burden he carries alone 
for all the little congregations he organizes over 
his district, till from the converts are developed 
characters worthy of the eldership. This requires 
years of waiting and working. Wherever practic- 
able, evangelical schools are established, and most 
often the missionary has to enlist in the teaching 
force of the enterprise. With the good hand of 
God resting upon the efforts of the infant congre- 
gation, soon a little chapel is needed, for which 
there is neither to be found an architect to draw 
his nicely measured plans, nor the contractor to 
execute those, leaving the one An charge to* do 
nothing but sign the proper documents and pay 

8 7 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

the cost. Far from it are the conditions that face 
the missionary. Though he has never planned the 
erection of a simple log cabin, he faces the dire ne- 
cessity of having to build a chapel, and that with 
the least possible outlay of funds — for the Foreign 
Mission Boards never experience the joy of seeing 
the treasuries overflow with appropriations. More- 
over, some in the homeland at times are disposed 
to criticise the builder-missionary, but it is barely 
possible, that given the help that the missionary 
has, nothing more than a common rock mason, 
who can scarcely add two simple numbers, com- 
pelling the missionary to be architect, contractor, 
foreman, purchaser of material, paymaster, etc., 
etc., the critic would make the same blunders. Lots 
are to be bought for Mission buildings, and not to 
permit the missionary enterprise to be swindled, 
and on the other hand to avoid the danger of fall- 
ing into the clutches of an unscrupulous lawyer 
whose god is gold, the missionary must have a 
limited knowledge of legal procedure. And where 
shall the lot be located in the town so as to draw 
more people? No members of the Board are there 
to canvass the field with the missionary. On the 
judgment of the latter rests the decision. Prob- 
lems arise whose name is legion, questions of ec- 
clesiastical comity, the relation of his field with 
that of another denomination that they may not 
overlap, and thus work harm to the general ad- 
vance of righteousness, the management of the 

88 



PLANS AND IDEALS. 

native force, which calls for greatest wisdom and 
tact, matters of discipline, where the severity and 
the gentleness of the Master must be blended, all 
these problems the missionary must solve single- 
handed and alone. 

It requires little mental acumen to understand 
that the missionary follows a calling that demands 
a strong body, a physical constitution that can ride 
horseback all day, sleep on the ground at night, 
and eat cold corn cakes for breakfast, or travel 
sixty miles during the day and preach that night, 
or conduct three religious services during the 
week, spend five days in the school room and post 
his books at» night. Nor must the missionary lack 
mental force. Lodge was right when, before the 
great Midway Conference he urged that "the mis- 
sionaries ought to be the foremost men whom the 
Christian Church possesses; the men who have 
intermeddled most and gone deepest into knowl- 
edge; whose intellectual resources are the largest, 
whose practical and persuasive ability are the 
finest, and whose temper is under the most com- 
plete control; the most fervent in spirit, the largest 
in mind and the most capable in action." Above 
all, he must be a man of God, "truly converted in 
heart and holy in life; baptized with the Holy 
Spirit and with fire; taught by the Spirit; led by 
the Spirit; filled with the Spirit; a man of one idea, 
one aim and one object; like the great apostle of 
the Gentiles, counting all things but loss for the 

89 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

excellency of the knowledge of Christ; determined 
not to know anything but Christ and Him cruci- 
fied; loving Christ, living Christ, ready and willing 
if need be to die for Christ." 

The Native Minister and His Work. 

The congregations organized by| the foreign 
missionary in different parts of his district are 
placed in charge of native pastors, who prosecute 
the work of personal evangelism from the congre- 
gational centers. Thus the native minister has the 
larger opportunity for personal contact with the 
people and must accomplish the larger share of 
the individual work of the evangelization of the 
field. The foreign missionary never ceases to be 
a soul winner. On his itinerating rides and in the 
homes of the people, he must, like Paul, by all 
means, save souls. But his energies are principally 
directed toward the larger work of the entire dis- 
trict. He must organize the forces, open the sta- 
tions of the field, stand at the front, and with the 
care of all the churches on his shoulders, strive to 
lead the evangelization to a successful triumph. 
He leaves the native pastor to do the most of the 
individual work of winning the people one by one. 

In this sphere of personal evangelism the native 
pastor excels. Over the world mission field it is 
the consensus of opinion that the heathen world 
can best be reached by its own sons. "When the 
set time arrives, the real reformers of Hindustan 
will be the qualified Hindus" (Duff). "The agency 

90 



PLANS AND IDEALS. 

by which and by which alone we can Christianize 
Africa, is the African himself" (Mackay). "The 
millions of China must be brought to Christ by 
Chinamen" (Nevius). "Whether considered po- 
litically, economically, sociologically or historic- 
ally, this is the only sound policy and effective 
method for evangelizing a nation" (Goodrich). 

The policy is based on the soundest wisdom. 
The native has a more fluent and intelligible use 
of the language than the foreign missionary. After 
having spent thirty and forty years on the field, 
the missionary has to confess that he does not have 
the command of the vocabulary and idioms of the 
language as does the native minister. It is one 
thing to master the grammatical construction of 
the language, but quite another matter to hold at 
ready command the hundreds and hundreds of 
idiomatic phrases of the people that best convey 
to them the ideas current among them. And still 
more difficult of attainment is the correct pro- 
nunciation of a foreign tongue. This, to' speak 
accurately, the foreigner never attains. Some 
approximate the task more nearly than others, 
but none that are reared in the homeland ever 
speak with the real accent of a native. Most nat- 
urally this consideration gives the native a decided 
advantage over the foreigner, when the effort is 
made to convey to the people the thoughts and 
ideas of our holy religion. 

The native pastor enters best into the inner life 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

of the people, their modes of thought, their pecu- 
liar currents of feeling, their national sentiment, 
their shades of religious feeling, their different 
customs that are confined to almost every section 
of the country. To be alive to these national and 
local characteristics is to have opened a wide ave- 
nue over which to reach more effectively the souls 
of those among whom the worker's lot is cast. To 
ignore these is at times fatal. To run counter to 
what local custom makes proper is to offend the 
tastes of the people and turn against the worker 
the hearts he would win. Right is right every- 
where, but passing over into the realm of things 
indifferent, there is much in which the missionary 
must conform to the ways of the people, and woe 
unto his usefulness if he cannot be one with them. 
To be sure, in this the native excels 'the foreigner. 
Better than the foreigner, does the native min- 
ister understand the foe with whom he has to 
battle. The deeply rooted saint worship, the cur- 
rent stories of how the images have fallen from 
the sky as gifts from heaven, the innumerable su- 
perstitions, the hopeless corruption of the priest- 
hood, the abyssmal shame of the confessional, all 
this the native understands, for in that atmosphere 
he has lived and moved and had his being for years. 
By day and by night he has heard them discussed 
in all their stages of credulity. He knows the 
stronghold of these senseless heresies, and the by- 
ways over which these beliefs travel into the minds 

92 



PLANS AND IDEALS. 

of the people; and knowing this, he knows where 
and how to meet them for successful combat. 

This is not saying that the common stock of 
the missionaries' teaching is to be the heresies of 
the apostate church. Quite otherwise. From 
those longest on the field we have learned that 
the surest way to uproot error is to plant the truth. 
The most effective method by which to rid the 
heart of idol worship is to admit Christ into the 
heart, and with the whipcords of His truth He will 
thrust out all that is against His kingdom. Preach 
Christ and Him crucified, and the falsities of the 
Roman apostasy will lose their grip on the pagan 
heart. Get the new life into the plant and the old 
leaves will fade and die and fall away. True 
enough, but there are sprouts which the keen 
blade of truth must prune that the plant may live 
and thrive. Without dwelling overmuch on the 
errors of the Catholic faith, there are times when 
these false beliefs must be corrected and the native 
minister knows best where they are entrenched in 
the heart, and with this knowledge of the where- 
abouts of the enemy and his wiles of strategy, he 
can more accurately make the deadly thrust. Dif- 
ficulties beset the honest seeker after light. Spir- 
itual problems baffle him. Questions arise with 
the new faith that must be answered. The walls 
of his former faith totter, but some towers stand 
steadfast. Some ideas of his old creed still appeal 
to him. The native has travelled over that same 

93 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

road and knows well the finger posts that lead out 
into the light. 

And not only because of the special fitness of 
the native ministers for winning their own people, 
but from the standpoint of financial economy, it is 
wise to employ them, rather than missionaries, as 
pastors of the congregations. However much the 
foreign missionary may sacrifice, the provision for 
his family, the education of his children, the added 
expense of the direction of his wide district, as 
well as other considerations, call for a larger sal- 
ary than that of the native minister. The needs of 
the latter are simpler. One thousand dollars paid 
a foreign missionary as pastor of a local congrega- 
tion, would supply the needs of two or three 
native pastors. 

These reasons more than justify the world-wide 
mission policy, which distributes over the district 
ten or more native men to labor under the direc- 
tion of the foreign missionary, who superintends 
the missionary operations from a central point. 
Thus the two workers, the native and the foreign, 
become necessary complements to each other. 
Without the aid of one the other is sorely crippled, 
while harmonious co-operation will enable them to 
reap a glorious harvest for the Lord. The mis- 
sionary holds the throttle of the ecclesiastical ma- 
chinery and directs the evangelizing agencies of 
the district. His burdens are heavy. They are 
crushing, were it not that he can draw upon divine 

94 



PLANS AND IDEALS. 

resources — the responsibility of souls numbering 
from one hundred to 1 five hundred thousand, the 
direction of the native force so that no friction re- 
sults, the oversight of schools and opening of new 
stations, the long itinerating trips, preaching often 
every night and always on Sabbath. In a word, 
the foreign worker follows the model missionary 
from Tarsus, traveling, preaching, teaching, plan- 
ning, raising up Timothy here and Titus yonder, 
and Apollos farther on, and all the while bearing 
on his heart the care of all the churches, while 
the native evangelists take charge of the local con- 
gregations and push to 1 the neighboring towns and 
ranches the work planted by the missionary. Paul 
plants and Apollos waters. This is the missionary 
policy in a nutshell. 

DEVELOPMENT. 
A Self-Sustaining Church. 

Ours, like all other missionary effort, steers its 
ship along a current that passes between the Scylla 
and Charybdis of two most fatal dangers. On the 
one hand, to contribute the funds of the home 
church toward the running expenses of the mis- 
sionary machinery of the field, so long and to such 
extent that the converts come to feel that their 
financial co-operation is not needed; that back of 
the missionary is a large bank account that insures 
a flow of funds such that whether they contribute 
or not, the missionary campaign will go forward, 

95 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

is a hidden rock on which the missionary bark will 
surely be stranded. It dries up the fountains of 
spirituality in the hearts of the converts, dwarfs 
their growth in the divine life, robs the Mission of 
a working force, and takes from the mouths of 
weaker congregations that help that would place 
them on their feet as potent factors of righteous- 
ness. On the other hand lies the equally fatal 
error of cutting off all support from the struggling 
congregation while in swaddling clothes, too weak 
to walk, and leave it to die by the wayside. 

Between these two reefs of ruin lies the path of 
safety and success. Till the new-born congrega- 
tion has sufficient strength to walk and work, it is 
the part of wisdom to take it by the arms that it 
may not fall, and teach it the secrets of spiritual 
activities. We would lead the little congregations 
along the way that leads to ultimate self-support. 
Self-sustaining, self-directing and self-disciplining 
congregations; this is the ideal toward which we 
are directing our energies. Our oldest congrega- 
tion, that of Tampico, has already reached this 
stage. All the expenses of the local work are met 
by the congregation. Besides the congregational 
expenditures, the salary of the native pastor, Rev. 
Pedro Trujillo, is paid by the members. And all 
the congregations are striving to reach the ideal. 
It was for this very purpose that on the 29th of 
June, 1888, the workers then engaged in the Mis- 
sion, Revs. N. E. Pressly and Pedro Trujillo, the 

96 



PLANS AND IDEALS. 

licentiates Zenon Zaleta and Inez Hernandez, and 
the elder, Pablo Morato, met in Tampico and or- 
ganized the Tampico Presbytery. That was but 
nine years after the planting of the Mission. And 
all through the years the Mission has been true 
to the high purpose to train the entire missionary 
forces, ministers and converts, to a self-sustaining 
and self-directing body, not operating separately 
from the Synod, but traveling along the ecclesias- 
tical paths as seen in the policies of the home Pres- 
byteries. 

An Evangelistic Church. 

That the soul is saved to serve; that the call to 
come to the Savior is not one whit more authori- 
tative than the commission to go and seek the lost; 
that the weary and heavy laden who hear and heed 
His voice calling to His side where there is perfect 
rest, must take upon them the yoke of service and 
become co-laborers with Him who would win the 
apostate world back to the Father's house; these 
are the high standards set before our converts. 
Each one becomes his brother's keeper. 

It is the Master's own plan. Grace spreads like 
the fire that descends from heaven (?) on Easter 
morn as the anxious throng fill the church of the 
Holy Sepulchre. From the lighted torch of the 
holy father who has tarried on the altar to receive 
the celestial fire, each worshipper lights his torch, 
and from that burning flame another is lit and an- 
other, till the entire city glows with the light of 

97 

M-7 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

the heavenly fire. Thus must the light of life 
travel to the ends of the earth. 

And if the fire does not spread, it goes out. To 
tie up our talent in a napkin is to lose it. Jerusa- 
lem received the oracles of God at Sinai and cen- 
turies later heard the words of Him who spake as 
never man spake, yet she lent no helping hand to 
the other nations that were strangers to the cov- 
enants of promise, and the terrible woes of the 
Master have been literally fulfilled. Not one stone 
has been left on Mt. Zion to mark the dwelling 
place of the God of Jacob. Use or lose is the in- 
exorable law of the kingdom of God. Mission 
fields that have failed to come up to the help of the 
Lord have not escaped the blighting curse of 
Meroz. John Mark carried the gospel to Egypt 
about the year 45 A. D. The good hand of God 
rested upon the new station and soon Alexandria 
became the center of a most aggressive Christian- 
ity. There was founded the great theological 
school of Clement. Origen, Eusebius and others 
of like heroic mould, were sons of this mission. 
Rapidly the gospel extended along the north 
coast of Africa and up the Nile, till in the year 308 
the national council was composed of 270 bishops. 
Then came the crisis. The wide harvest fields of 
the south stretched out before them. The door of 
opportunity opened wide and the man from Mace- 
donia was calling for the evangelization of the 
Dark Continent. The North African Church fold- 

98 



PLANS AND IDEALS. 

ed its arms, busied itself with technical theological 
discussions and left the perishing millions to their 
doom. The result was, that the church was weak- 
ened by schisms and dwarfed at last into the Cop- 
tic sect of Egypt, an ecclesiastical body as utterly 
un-Christian as Islam. The lesson is clear, the 
Mission that is not evangelistic will soon be 
missing. 

For this aggressive evangelism our convert has 
an experience that stirs him with great motive 
power. He has turned from his idols to serve the 
living God. And how different all life becomes! 
It is like the change from darkest night to bright- 
est noonday. Christ has borne the curse of his 
sins and the blood shed on Calvary has washed 
away all the stain and guilt. The Romanist must 
bruise his body, go the endless rounds of penance 
and still never rid his soul of the crushing load of 
guilt like the mountain resting on Typhon's heart. 
He who believes on Christ to the saving of his soul, 
finds in his heart a fountain of perennial joy that 
stirs him to sing amid the overwhelming sorrows 
of life, a most striking contrast to the cheerless 
faith of the papal idolater. The convert to the 
gospel feeds on the "exceeding great and precious 
promises" which are like "honey out of the rock," 
while the Romanist has no message of inspiration 
unless it be the manual of prayers to the saints or 
the mass said in Latin. Like Ephraim, he feeds 
on ashes. The believer looks up into the Re- 

99 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

deemer's face and cries, Abba Father, he feels the 
everlasting arms about him and the throb of the 
Father heart, while the Romanist bows before his 
image, and says, "Thou art my hope." The evan- 
gelical believer holds a creed that makes death a 
mere shadow through which the great Shepherd 
guides and comforts with His rod and staff", while 
those who put their trust in little gods of wood, 
paper and stone, go down into the grave clinging 
to their dumb idols with indescribable dread. 
Theirs is not the light and song of the shepherd 
psalm. The soul reconciled through Christ de- 
parts this life to go to the Master's presence, where 
there is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand 
there are pleasures forever more. The Romanist 
looks for the fearful judgment of purgatorial 
flames, in which the devoted are to be purified 
till — no one knows how long. 

So marked is the change between the two ex- 
periences, that the Romanist who has been sound- 
ly converted and has received the "fullness of the 
blessing of the gospel of Christ," awakes to the 
sense of his obligation to his neighbors, who follow 
his empty, lifeless faith in idols. While the be- 
liever, who has laid body, soul and spirit at the 
feet of Jesus, feasts in the banqueting house of 
free grace, he remembers his fellowmen who are 
feeding on the husks of the far country of Romish 
idolatry and formalism, and his soul is fired with 
a mighty passion to tell what great things the 

100 



PLANS AND IDEALS. 

Lord has done for him, that others may come to 
the Father's house where there is bread and to 
spare. He would go along the highways of papal 
formalism and bring his friends to the gospel feast 
to drink of that water of which, if a man drink, he 
shall never thirst, and to eat of that bread of 
which, if a man eat, he shall never hunger again. 

Jean Ingelow's hero in "Brothers and Sermon," 
is our model. The old man lived among the fisher- 
folk and was wont to go from hut to hut pleading 
the text, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." 
His life was so intensely holy that it was as if 
Christ had been drawn down from heaven to take 
them home. He begged the fishermen to open 
their hearts to the waiting, knocking Savior. And 
he besought them as if their souls were in his 
keeping, and he could not bear to go to heaven till 
every one of the humble villagers were ready to 
follow him. 

A Spiritual Church. 

Roman Catholicism is Pharisaism at its worst. 
" Outwardly they appear righteous to men, but 
within they are full of hypocrisy and wickedness." 
To sprinkle a bit of holy water suffices to regen- 
erate the soul; to whisper the recital of one's sins 
into the ear of a confessor will insure pardon, 
though there be no thought of repentance; to 
make clean the outside tef the platter and of the 
cup meets the gospel conditions, though the heart 
be full of extortion and excess. Against this ex- 

IOI 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

ternalism our gospel makes relentless war, and in- 
sists that the heart is the center of the spirituality 
that must stand the shibboleths of divine testing, 
that until the soul's inner life is righted all is 
wrong, that we must be born again, that pardon 
is conditioned by the resolution to go and sin no 
more, that to go from the confessional back over 
the ways of iniquity, is to follow the "sow to the 
wallow and the dog to his vomit," abundant proof 
that the soul has been the victim of the deceitful- 
ness of sin, and is still in the gall of bitterness and 
the bond of iniquity. Those who heed the call to 
separation from this Babylon, "the hold of every 
foul spirit," need to be told and retold, that "true 
religion and undefiled before God" is not only to 
visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, 
but to keep one's self unspotted from the world of 
bull fights, cock pits, Sabbath desecration behind 
the trade counter or in the gay whirl of the ball 
room. 

The Bible is made the man of our counsel. Like 
the Pharisee with his endless traditions, the 
Romanist makes the word of God of none effect 
through the bulls of popes and edicts of councils. 
Purgatorial fires are preached, indulgences are 
sold > and the grossest idolatry is sanctioned with- 
out the slightest authority; simply because such 
practices have the seal of papal approval. Our 
converts are taught that the Sacred Scriptures, 
"to which nothing is to be added and from which 

I02 



PLANS AND IDEALS. 

nothing is to be taken," are the royal rule of all 
holy living, the divine plumb-line by which all pre- 
cepts and practices are to be tested. 

Penance is most unsparingly condemned. 
There is no merit in bruising one's body with 
spiked thongs, wearing thorn crowns, or crawling 
over sharp stones. The gospel of the atoning sub- 
stitution recognizes no remission of sin through 
the shedding of one's own blood. Only the blood 
shed on Calvary can take away the sin of the world, 
"forasmuch as we were not redeemed with cor- 
ruptible things, such as gold and silver, but with 
the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without 
spot and without blemish." 

The simple, sublime standards of the prayer life 
are exalted. The effectual, fervent prayer of the 
righteous man that availeth much in its working, 
because offered in the name of our Great High 
Priest, Jesus Christ, and through faith, takes the 
place of the unintelligibly rapid mumbling of "Hail 
Mary," the hundreds of times prescribed in the 
manual of devotion, or the burning of candles be- 
fore the images, as remembrancers of the plea of 
the suppliant, or the confessions of their short- 
comings to a priest whose life too often is stained 
with the blackest vileness. Isaiah's warning is 
thundered and re-thundered; that their offerings 
of candles to saints, and gold for prayers to be 
said, are vain; their incense is an abomination; 
their appointed feasts weary the Lord of Hosts, 

103 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

and though they stretch forth their hands He will 
hide His face. They must wash their hands in 
innocency, and thus compass the altar of prayer. 
They must put away evil doing and learn to do 
well. We would lead our converts to draw near 
with a true heart and in full assurance of faith, 
having their hearts sprinkled from an evil consci- 
ence, and enter through the vail rent by the broken 
body of the Savior on the cross, when His blood 
was shed for the sinner's reconciliation, and sit at 
the feet of Him whom we may call Abba Father. 
Like Christ is the ideal for both our converts 
and ourselves. Perhaps no part of the Bible is so 
constantly studied as the Evangelists, to see how 
He walked and worked. What He would do, is 
our moving and moulding motto. Like the fabled 
lake that nestled in the quiet, secluded valley, in 
whose crystal mirror may be seen mountain ranges 
that are invisible to the naked eye, we strive to 
have the converts reflect the likeness of the Christ 
who walks no more among us in the flesh. To 
attain to this divine standard, the Holy Spirit filled 
life is preached. Like the Ephesians, the Romanists 
have not so much as heard whether there be any 
Holy Spirit. With good works as the basis, their 
scheme of salvation is self-centered. The error is 
fatal, and issues in the works of the flesh and final 
spiritual death. The gospel delivers them from 
this body of death, and looks to the new center 
which is Christ, and His Spirit works in them the 

104 



PLANS AND IDEALS. 

fruit of righteousness, helping them to add to their 
faith all the divinely-nurtured graces, till they at- 
tain to the stature of the perfect men in Christ 
Jesus. The fanaticism that would call down fire 
from heaven to consume those who refuse to wor- 
ship the pope sitting in his temple as god, is 
purged away as dross by the pentecostal fires of 
the Spirit who kindles on the heart-altar the flame 
of that passion which is the bond of perfeetness. 

We would teach the converts to see Jesus. 
Rome tolerates no personal relationship with 
Christ. Hers is a complex system that comes be- 
tween the soul and its Savior, a mighty ecclesiasti- 
cal machine that pretends to make saints, and in 
so doing destroys all personal contact with the 
Lord, whose we are and whom we serve. Christ 
becomes nothing, and the individual nothing. The 
soul is absorbed into the vast system and the 
Savior is placed far out of reach. The mother 
church is everything to the Romanist. Our gos- 
pel aims to do for the converts what the phil- 
osopher asked of the king, that he would get out 
of his light. We would compel Romanism to stand 
aside that the "light of the knowledge of the glory 
of God in the face of Jesus Christ may shine in 
their hearts/' And once catching the vision of 
Him who is the "chief est of ten thousand, the 
One altogether lovely," the convert will renounce 
his blind devotion to Mary, and the saints whose 
name is legion, and crown Him Lord of all, "that 

105 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

in all things He may have the preeminence." The 
soul will feel the sublime thrill of Paul, who 
counted all things but loss and refuse for the ex- 
cellency of the knowledge of Christ, and be ready 
to suffer the loss of all things to win Him and be 
found in Him. These whose streams of comfort 
have traced their sources to saints, will look upon 
that face from which beams that love passing 
knowledge, and cry "Oh Galilean, Thou hast con- 
quered." He who is above all and through all, 
and infinitely closer to all than popes and priests 
and the "mother church," with her pretended keys, 
will constrain the devoted hearts to press through 
all the outer circles of personal fellowship and 
come near, so near as to lay their weary heads 
upon His bosom. Then, like Zinzendorf, they will 
have one passion, Christ and Christ alone. To 
learn of Him, to know Him, to follow Him, to 
walk with Him in white, to abide in Him, to die 
with Him and reign with Him, these are our su- 
preme aims for those whom the Lord has given us. 
Patrick's prayer for himself is ours for them. 

Christ as a light 
Illumine and guide me; 
Christ as a shield o'ershadow and cover me; 
Christ be under me; Christ be over me; 
Christ be beside me, 
On left hand and right. 
Christ be before me, behind me, about me, 
Christ this day be within and without me. 

106 



CHAPTER VII. 

OUR BEGINNING. 
A Retrospective Look. 

The fires of missionary zeal began to burn early 
in the history of our church. In October, 1807, 
Synod "resolved that every minister of our Synod 
lift a collection to aid Foreign Missions/' The 
Church was too small to undertake a separate work 
on the Foreign field, so that all funds were sent 
to the Board of the Reformed Presbyterian Church 
to be applied to the use of their missionaries in 
India. There is no record of the amount of these 
contributions made by these pioneers of the Lord's 
work. Suffice it to add that in the year 1838 the 
nine congregations contributed three hundred and 
twenty-seven dollars. To indicate, too, something 
of the way in which was esteemed the aid of our 
fathers in the work in far-off India, it is said that 
among the first converts that these brave Coven- 
anter missionaries won from the ranks of Buddha 
and Brahma three were given Christian names, 
those of Isaac Grier, William Blackstocks and 
John Hemphill. 

Not content with being merely helpers, the 
Associate Reformed people set their heads and 
their hearts on the operation of a distinct mission 
work in some part of the Regions Beyond. But 
where would it be? In 1846 the Committee on 

107 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Foreign Mission work reported through its chair- 
man the recommendation of the establishment of 
a school in Kentucky to be under the supervision 
of Thomas Ware, a colored man of Africa. The 
purpose of the school was to prepare colored stu- 
dents for the work in Africa, where the Synod pro- 
posed planting their Mission. Liberia was to be 
the center of their missionary operations. Quite 
a number of persons offered to give the Synod ser- 
vants for the school. The Government of Liberia 
readily granted a tract of twenty acres of land for 
the establishment of the Mission. Three boys were 
placed at the disposal of the Synod. Dr. G. W. 
Pressly gave his boy Harrison, Mr. James Robin- 
son gave his boy William, and the Misses Murphy 
gave their boy Pinkney. It did look as if the en- 
thusiasm of the little band was going to bear fruit 
in the organization of real missionary work on for- 
eign soil. For this they were praying and toiling. 
But somehow the school failed. And after about 
five years of trial, the Board of Foreign Missions 
reported "It becomes our painful duty to report 
the failure of the African mission so far as regards 
the training or preparation of the boys that have 
been placed under the supervision of Rev. N. M. 
Gordon." Two of the students proved morally 
unfit for the work and the other intellectually so. 
Other students were placed in the school, where 
great emphasis was laid on manual labor in the 
curriculum. The whole affair lent little or no hope 

108 



OUR BEGINNING. 

to the ardent desire of the fathers to open Foreign 
Mission work on foreign soil. Thus matters 
dragged along till in the year 1855 the Board 
recommended that Synod cease to support the 
school and it was closed. Thus came to naught 
the African Mission which for a while promised so 
much. Why should the frail bark strand upon the 
reefs and rocks so soon? The Church had given 
the project their unstinted loyalty. They had 
opened their purse till the enterprise had no lack. 
They had been unceasing in their prayers for these 
dark-faced sons of Africa. But the student factor 
was so sorely deficient, the material so poor, and 
the management was so far from what it should 
have been, that the little ship could not breast the 
high surging wave and went down. 

And so rude was the shock given the missionary 
spirit that glowed in the heart of the Church, that 
no more was said about Missions for years. At 
least nothing was recorded. Just before the Civil 
War broke out, the matter came up once more; 
for the words, the last words of our departing 
Lord to go and teach all nations were like a fire 
shut up in their bones, and weary with foreboding, 
they could not stay the zeal to speak out. But 
the scorching sun of those sixties burned to the 
ground this as • it did so many other frail plants, 
just opening its buds to bloom. 

When the storms of war had passed and the 
struggling Church had risen to her feet again, the 

109 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

spirit of Missions made itself heard once more. It 
could not die so' long" as the Church breathed. It 
was and is the life blood of the body of Christ. 
Wherever souls have the spirit of the Saviour they 
will weep as He did over the lost, be their faces 
black, white or bronzed, and spare no sacrifice to 
bring them within the folds of the Father's great 
love. It was so with our fathers. In 1872 Synod 
appointed a committee to study and report to the 
next meeting as to the practicability of opening 
another mission field. 

The next meeting took place at Mt. Zion, Mo., 
and it was resolved to take up actively the Foreign 
Missionary enterprise, and the Board was ordered 
to send out to all the churches a letter stirring up 
their hearts to the great duty of evangelizing the 
nations. Two schemes were proposed at the next 
meeting. One was to open an independent mis- 
sion. The other was to co-operate with some 
other denomination. The latter was adopted, an 
invitation having been received from the United 
Presbyterians, Miss Mary E. Galloway, of Due 
West, S. G, offered her services as pioneer mis- 
sionary, and arrangements were made at once to 
send her to Egypt, the field operated by the 
United Presbyterian Church. The close of the 
year 1874 witnessed farewell meetings held in dif- 
ferent places in honor of our first missionary. On 
the 28th of January, 1875, sne sailed from New 
York for Alexandria, Egypt. She arrived there in 

Jio 



OUR BEGINNING. 

March. Her remarkable linguistic ability was 
now brought to bear on the study of the Arabic 
language, the one used on her field of labor. The 
following year she was married to* Rev. John Gif- 
fen, of United Presbyterian Mission. For five 
years she labored in Alexandria, Cairo and Assiut, 
but chiefly in the last named point. In 1881 her 
health failed. With her husband she went to 
Northern Italy with the hope of regaining her 
health there. Somewhat benefited, they returned 
to Egypt, but she rapidly declined, and on the 16th 
of October, 1881, she died. One morning with 
her son, Rev. Bruce J. Giflfen, then a missionary in 
Cairo, we rode out to the American graveyard 
where a little mound marks her last resting place 
till He comes. Nothing in all Egypt had for us 
more charm than that simple monument. But 
that marble shaft is not her only monument. There 
are others that tell more loudly her praises. She 
had a part in that great work all along the Nile, 
ranked today among the first missionary work of 
the century. But especially she labored at Assiut. 
We were shown into a little room and were told 
that in that small apartment she and her husband 
lived, and from that center they labored. They 
sowed and watered with their prayers. And what 
has been the outcome? That little room is today 
a mighty college with its five hundred students. 
Throughout all Egypt its influence is felt in be- 
half of righteousness. Spending a Sabbath within 

III 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

its walls and looking into the faces of that large 
body of students, we felt that our great heroine, 
who was the first to carry our 'banner into the 
enemy's country, falling out there on the firing line 
right at the front, had a noble part in that far- 
reaching work for the young men and young 
women of the Nile Valley. 

The Mexican Mission Established. 

It was evident that our people were not content 
with the co-operative idea. The United Presby- 
terian brethren had been most generous in the 
plan of co-operation as carried on in the Egyptian 
Mission, beyond anything we had a right to ask 
or expect; the relations between the two bodies 
had been most cordial and harmonious; Mrs. Gal- 
loway Giffen had proven a most efficient mission- 
ary during her 'brief period of service; 'but there 
breathed throughout the denomination the spirit 
of an independent mission. 

Three years after the departure of Miss Gallo- 
way, and three years prior to her death, in 1878, 
the Synod resolved to establish an independent 
mission. The field chosen was Mexico. It was 
Dr. J. I. Bonner who first proposed and advocated 
the step that developed into the new mission. 

While the leaven of the independent mission 
had been at work, the Lord of the harvest had 
been preparing the pioneer for the place. He who 
had heard the cry of Israel groaning under the 

112 



OUR BEGINNING. 

stinging lash of the taskmasters, and had been 
moving upon their hearts ere the set time for their 
deliverance came, had been preparing the liber- 
ator, Moses, for forty years as he tended his flock 
through the deserts of Horeb; He who had raised 
up the throne of the Caesars and called into being 
the noble tongue of the Greeks, poured His Spirit 
from on high, opened the way for the Gentiles to 
enter the kingdom, was also making ready His 
servant whom He had called from his birth, Paul, 
the apostle, who should plant the banner of the 
cross all the way from Antioch to Rome. The 
same God who had brought our church step by 
step to the organization of the new mission on 
foreign soil, had been moving upon the heart of 
the worker on whose shoulders should fall the re- 
sponsibility of the founding. Ere the door was 
opened that led out into the trackless unknown 
of our new enterprise, He had called the pioneer. 
Neill E. Pressly, then a student in Erskine Col- 
lege, heard the summons and did not draw back 
from the vision of hardships that lay ahead, but 
with the promptness of the seraphic prophet an- 
swered, "Here am I, send me." It was during 
the farewell meeting held on the eve of the de- 
parture of Miss Galloway for Egypt, that he heard 
the still small voice quietly calling for volunteers 
for the far-away lands of spiritual darkness. Little 
did he know to what part of the wide world the 
voice would lead, but he was resolute to follow. 

"3 

M-S 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

For three years he studied and waited for the 
marching orders. At last the pillar of cloud led 
the way to Mexico. The Synod had asked him to 
undertake the planting of the Mexican Mission. 

With Mrs. Rachel Pressly, who has stood by his 
side through all the frowning vicissitudes and try- 
ing hardship of missionary life, and has been a 
most worthy helper in the Lord, they left for their 
field, reaching Mexico City, January 14, 1879, 
where they studied the language. There they re- 
mained till December of the same year, when the 
Board, in concert with the missionary, chose Tam- 
pico as the base of their missionary operations. 
And so the Mexican Mission became a fact. 

Those were days that tested what manner of 
men missionaries were. It was no holiday trip, no 
outing for sightseeing. There was only one rail- 
road in the Republic, leaving the lone worker far 
beyond easy reach of communication. The coun- 
try was not under the firm grip of law and order 
as now. Bandits prowled over the country, and 
fanaticism, too, often had a free hand with the lash 
and sword of persecution. The missionaries had 
behind them no long years of experience which 
they might call to their rescue. The work was 
not organized. The future was shrouded in mys- 
tery, save as the eye of faith could discern the 
shining way that lay beneath the shadows. Would 
the mission succeed? It required the spirit of 
Abraham to step out on the untried shore, and a 

114 



OUR BEGINNING. 

faith that lays its hand in the Father's and walks 
calmly at His side. But with the spirit of Miss 
Galloway, who had gone to Egypt, not counting 
her life dear unto herself, that she might finish her 
course with joy and the ministry that she had re- 
ceived of the grace of God, these two brave 
pioneers set their faces steadfastly and followed 
the Master into these dark regions of Romish des- 
titution. All honor to these who for thirty-one 
years have stood at the outpost, true to their 
church and true to their Christ. Crowns of re- 
joicing will be theirs when the Master comes to 
make up His jewels. 



ii5 



CHAPTER VIII. 
OUR WORKERS. 

FOREIGN MISSIONARIES. 

Bonner, Rev. W. J — He is the son of Dr. J. I. 
and Alice Bonner, and was born January 17, 1882, 
at Oak Hill, Alabama. Under the ministry of 
Rev. H. M. Henry, he was received into Bethel 
church in 1896. Having received his literary edu- 
cation at Auburn College, Alabama, he took a 
course of study in the Union Missionary Institute 
of Brooklyn, in 1908-9, after which he was ap- 
pointed to the Mexican Mission. He was married 
to Miss Nellie Rhule of Williamsburg, Pa., Sept., 
1909. The same year the Tennessee and 1 Alabama 
Presbytery licensed him to preach the gospel. He 
reached Rioverde, Mexico, November 5, 1909, 
where he has since resided, studying the language. 

Bonner, Mrs. Nellie Rhule. — She was born at 
Williamsburg, Pa., May 22, 1880, and is the daugh- 
ter of A. J. and Almira Rhule. In June 19, 1893, 
she was received into the Presbyterian church of 
her native town. After having graduated from the 
Indiana State Normal School in 1901, and from 
the Moody Bible Institute in 1906, she spent six 
years teaching, two years in public schools, two 
years in Nashville and one in the Union Mission- 
ary Institute of Brooklyn. From childhood she 
entertained the fond ambition to enter foreign mis- 
sionary work, and in 1909 saw her desire realized 
by her appointment to the Mexican Mission. With 

116 



OUR WORKERS. 

her husband, Rev. W. J. Bonner, to whom she was 
married, September, 1909, she reached Rioverde, 
Mexico, Nov. 5, 1909, where she is studying the 
language. 

Boyce, Miss Mattie — She was the daughter of 
Samuel and Luisa Boyce, and was born at Sardis, 
N. C, May 1, 1868. Early in life she was received 
into the communion of Sardis (N. C), congrega- 
tion. She graduated from the Due West Female 
College in 1890. For years the missionary spirit 
had been growing in her heart, till one night she 
asked God very definitely that He would reveal 
to her His will. The next day she received a letter 
from the Board of Foreign Missions asking her 
to accept an appointment to the Mexican Mission. 
It was God's call and she was ready. After one 
year of study under Prof. Todd, of Erskine Col- 
lege, she with Miss Stevenson, left for Tampico, 
reaching there in December, 1891. For five years 
she did noble service for the school work of Tam- 
pico, till broken health compelled her to retire 
from the field. However, she never forgot her 
first love. Whether as Superintendent of the 
Woman's Work of the Synod, or as Lady Prin- 
cipal of the Due West Female College, she was 
ever true to the claims of the Mexican Mission. 
She fell asleep in Jesus in Due West, June 22, 
1903. 

Dale, Rev. J. Q — He was born at Oak Hill, 
Alabama, June 21, 1870, his parents being William 

117 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Dale and Sarah Cole. At the age of nine he felt 
the drawings of the Spirit toward the gospel min- 
istry, and three years later was received into Bethel 
(Ala.) church. Graduating from Erskine College 
in 1892, and from the United Presbyterian Theo- 
logical Seminary of Allegheny in 1896, he was 
licensed by the Allegheny (U. P.) Presbytery in 
1896, and ordained by the First Presbytery of the 
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in the 
same year. The Board of Home Missions sent 
him to Columbia to open work, where he remain- 
ed three years. The Synod of 1898 appointed him 
to the Mexican Mission. He reached Rioverde, 
Oct. 8, 1899, where he studied the language. The 
year following he was married to Miss Katherine 
Neel, M.D. Work was assigned him in Cerritos, 
but the Synod having decided to establish the 
Preparatory and Theological School, he was trans- 
ferred to Rioverde to take charge of that branch 
of the mission work. The Rioverde district was 
placed under his care when Rev. J. R. Edwards re- 
tired in 1907. 

Dale, Dr. Katherine Neel. — She is the daughter 
of J. D. Neel, M.D., and Margaret Pressly, and 
was born at Troy, S. C, August 13, 1872. At the 
age of fourteen she was received into the com- 
munion of the congregation at Troy, S. C. Her 
education was completed in the Due West Female 
College, from which she was graduated in 1892. 
From her earliest years, reading the lives of mis- 

118 



OUR WORKERS. 

sionaries, begat in her heart the desire to became 
a missionary, and the ambition grew with the pass- 
ing years. In 1893 she was appointed by the 
Board to the Mexican Mission. Convinced of the 
increased usefulness that would be added by a 
medical course, she spent four years in the Wom- 
an's Medical College, of Philadelphia, from which 
she was graduated 1897. After a year in the hos- 
pital of the same institution as resident physician, 
she left for the field, reaching Ciudad del Maiz in 
1898, where she labored till May 30, 1900, when 
she was married to Rev. J. G. Dale. Later she 
was transferred to Rioverde, where she practices 
her profession. 

Edwards, Rev. J. R — He is the son of Dr. E. H. 
and Mrs. A. E. Edwards, and was born near Rock 
Hill, S. C, May 30, 1867. At the age of fourteen 
he accepted Christ as his Savior. Graduating from 
Erskine in 1888, after two years spent in teaching, 
he took the theological course in Erskine Semi- 
nary. The Second Presbytery licensed him in 1890, 
and one year later he was ordained to the work of 
the ministry. One year was spent in Home Mission 
work in Bartow, Fla., and another in post-gradu- 
ate study at Princeton, N. J. In 1893 the Board 
appointed him missionary to Mexico. Reaching 
Ciudad del Maiz in December of that year, he 
spent five months studying the language, after 
which he opened gospel work in Rioverde, May 
10, 1894. After fourteen years of faithful, fruitful 

119 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

service, broken health compelled his retirement 
from the field. 

Edwards, Mrs. Amelia — She was born in An- 
derson, S. C, September 16, 1869. Having com- 
pleted her primary education in the schools of An- 
derson, she was graduated from Anderson Female 
College in 1886. While yet young, she was re- 
ceived into full communion of the First Presby- 
terian church of her native town. After having 
prosecuted the study of art in New York, she 
taught in the state of Texas. For two years she 
filled the position of teacher of art in the Due 
West Female College. While there she met Rev. 
J. R. Edwards, and this friendship culminated in 
marriage, Oct. 20, 1893. They left at once for 
the mission field, where she labored till broken 
health forced her husband to resign his post. She 
has left an enduring monument in the lives of 
many who came in touch with her consecrated life 
on the mission field. 

Gettys, Miss Jennie. — She was born Nov. 2, 
1879, near Leslie, S. C, within the bounds of 
Neely's Creek congregation, her parents being J. 
R. and Mattie Gettys. She was received into the 
church, August, 1891, during the pastorate of Rev. 
C. B. Betts. Reading the lives of missionaries in- 
spired her with a desire to go to the Regions Be- 
yond, and after her graduation from Winthrop 
Normal College, June, 1909, she volunteered for 
foreign missionary work, was accepted by the 

120 



OUR WORKERS. 

Board and sent to Tampico to take the place of 
Miss Strong, who had resigned on account of 
broken health. She reached the field, Nov. 6, 
1909, and is at present studying the language. 

Hunter, Rev. J. S. A. — He was the son of Lorezo 
Hunter and Anna Boyce, and was born Nov. 13, 
1847, at Sardis, N. C. Early in life he made a pro- 
fession of his faith in Christ. GraSuating from 
Erskine College in 1871, and the Seminary in 
1873, the First Presbytery licensed him the same 
year. The following year he was ordained to the 
work of the ministry. From 1879 to 1887 he 
occupied the pastorates of Hickory and Shady 
Grove (Arkansas) congregations. He was married 
to Miss Emma McDill in 1877. Having been ap- 
pointed to the Mexican Mission, he came to Tam- 
pico in 1887, where he spent one year studying 
the language. Locating in Ciudad del Maiz, he 
served the mission for twenty-two years most 
faithfully till August 24, 1909, when he passed to 
his eternal reward. He was married the second 
time to Miss Rosema Beamer, Oct. 28, 1903. Over 
a wide region he sowed the seed of the gospel, 
traveling on horseback and enduring hardness 
most cheerfully for the name of the Lord Jesus. 
He organized churches in C. del Maiz, La Colonia, 
San Antonio, Minas Viejas and Valles, bearing 
sheaves of souls to his Master, which will be his 
crown of rejoicing in the day of His coming. 
Hunter, Mrs. Emma McDill. — She was the 

121 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

daughter of William and Jane McDill, and was 
born in Newberry, S. C, May 18, 1855. She was 
graduated from the Due West Female College in 
1873, and four years later was married to Rev. J. 
S. A. Hunter. For ten years she labored with 
him in Arkansas, after which she accompanied him 
to Mexico to engage in the work of the Mission. 
After fourteen years of untiring effort she heard 
the summons of the King eternal and passed into 
His presence to go no more out forever. She died 
the death of the righteous, after a life of rare use- 
fulness in the service of the Master. Of the most 
winning ways, with a splendid command of the 
Spanish language, deeply consecrated to the Mas- 
ter's every interest, thoroughly awake to every 
opportunity to influence a soul for Christ, she did 
a truly great and telling work for her Lord whom 
she loved so whole-heartedly and served so 
heroically. 

Hunter, Mrs. Rosema Beamer. — She was the 
daughter of Solomon Beamer and Leah Taylor, 
and was born near Gettysburg, Pa., May 28, i860. 
From her infancy she learned to love her Savior, 
and at the age of fourteen was received into the 
Methodist church of Altoona, Pa. Her education 
was 1 received in Dickinson Seminary and at Chau- 
tauqua. Early in life she began to pity the nations 
sitting in the shadows of heathen darkness, and 
felt the call of God to the Regions Beyond. The 
doors were closed to her entering the foreign mis- 

122 



OUR WORKERS. 

sion field till she came to Mexico, reaching Ciudad 
del Maiz, Dec. 28, 1903, with her husband, Rev. 
J. S. A. Hunter, to whom she had been married 
October 28th of the same year. Since the death 
of her husband she has had charge of the Ciudad 
del Maiz school. Most nobly has she come up to 
the help of the work to which her godly husband 
gave his life. 

Love, Miss Janie — She is the daughter of Rev. 
W. Y. and Mrs. M. K. Love, aand was born at 
Bloomington, Tenn., September 20, 1882. At the 
early age of ten the Spirit knocked at the door of 
her heart and she opened to her Savior, being re- 
ceived into the congregation of Coddle Creek (N. 
C), of which her father was pastor. Her mother's 
prayers had prevailed at the throne of grace. She 
was graduated from the Due West Female College 
in 1903. From early childhood it had been her 
fond desire to go to the foreign mission field. Dur- 
ing one of the Ashville (N. C.) conferences, the 
desire was forged into a purpose and at the call 
of the Board she volunteered. She took charge of 
the Ciudad del Maiz school in 1904, after having 
spent one year in Rioverde studying the language. 
She was transferred to the Rioverde school in 
1909 and has enlisted her splendid musical power 
in the cause 'that looks to the betterment of young 
womanhood. 

McMaster, Miss Rachel, M.D. — She was the 
daughter of George and Lou Gregg McMaster, 

123 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

and was born at Winnsboro, S. G, June 24, 1880. 
During a series of revival services conducted by 
Dr. W. W. Orr, in November, 1894, she was re- 
ceived into the church. Her education was fin- 
ished in Winthrop Normal School, S. C, from 
which she was graduated in 1901. During her 
college course she formed the sublime purpose to 
lay her life upon the altar of foreign missions. She 
was graduated from the Woman's Medical College, 
of Philadelphia, in 1908, after which she spent one 
year in the hospital of the same institution as resi- 
dent physician. She reached Rioverde, February 
21, 1910, where she is studying the language. 

Neel, Miss Lavinia — She is the daughter of Dr. 
J. D. and Mrs. Margaret Pressly Neel, and was 
born at Troy, March 12, 1870. Due to the godly 
influences of her Christian home, she was brought 
to the Savior at the age of fourteen. After having 
finished her literary course in the Due West Fe- 
male College in 1889, she took a post-graduate 
course in art in Atlanta and New York. Under 
the influence of her mother, and later inspired by 
the teachings of her teacher, Miss Mildred Wat- 
kins, she decided to enter the foreign mission 
work. Having reached Ciudad del Maiz in 1894, 
she took charge of the school there, remaining at 
that post of service till 1903, when she was trans- 
ferred to Rioverde and placed in charge of the 
Hattie May Chester Institute. Her rare executive 
faculties have been laid at the feet of her Lord and 

124 



OUR WORKERS. 

are most telling factors in the mental and moral 
uplift of the girls of the Rioverde School. 

Pressly, Neill E., D.D — He is the son of Rev. 
J. E. Pressly, D.D., and Martha Sherard, and was 
born at Moffattsville, S. C, Sept. n, 1850. His 
early years were spent within the bounds of Cod- 
dle Creek (N. C.) congregation. Graduating from 
Erskine College and Seminary in 1878, he was 
licensed by the Second Presbytery, April 13, and 
ordained Dec. 14 of the same year. Having been 
appointed by the Board to establish the Mexican 
Mission, he, with Mrs. Pressly, reached Mexico 
City, Jan. 14, 1879, where he spent the year study- 
ing the language. December 6, 1879, he reached 
Tampico, where he has since resided. In 1901 
Erskine College honoreu him with the degree of 
D.D. 

Pressly, Mrs. Rachel. — She is the daughter of 
H. L. Elliot and Mary McMaster, and was born 
Dec. 16, 1848. Her education was received in the 
High School of Winnboro, S. C, and under the 
tutorage of Dr. Lord, of New Orleans. In 1868 
she was married to Mr. B. C. Roseboro, who died 
within five years. During a post-graduate course 
in the Due West Female College, she met Rev. 
N. E. Pressly, to whom she was married in 1878. 
The January following she accompanied him to 
Mexico. 

Pressly, Rev. H. E — He was born in Tampico, 
Mexico, December 9, 1885, and is the son of Rev. 

"5 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

N. E. and Rachel Pressly. Due to the influences 
of home training he was converted early in life, 
and was received into the Tampico congregation 
in 1899. He graduated from Erskine College in 
1906 and from Erskine Theological Seminary in 
1909. During the same 1 year the First Presbytery 
at its meeting of May 4 licensed him, and at the 
meeting in November he was ordained to the full 
work of the ministry. The Board of Foreign Mis- 
sions appointed him to the Mexican Mission in 
1909, and early in February, 19 10, he took up the 
work of the Ciudad del Maiz field, where he at 
present labors. 

Stevenson, Miss Made. — She was born at Al- 
bion, S. C, within the bounds of New Hope con- 
gregation, Nov. 10, 1872. Her parents were 
Robert Stevenson and Margaret Harlin. At the 
early age of twelve she accepted Christ as her 
Savior. Even before that she often said that she 
was going to be a missionary. Her words were 
prophetic. Her education was finished in the Due 
West Female College, from which institution she 
graduated in 1890. The same year she was ap- 
pointed to the Mexican Mission, and after one 
year of study of the Spanish under Prof. J. M. 
Todd, she left for the field, reaching Tampico, De- 
cember, 1 89 1. Notwithstanding the sweltering 
heat of the coast, and the northers that so often 
sweep down upon them, she has been at her post 
for nineteen years. The entire Tampico field has 

126 



OUR WORKERS. 

felt the impress of her intellectual and spiritual 
power. 

Strong, Miss Anna — She was born August II, 
1876, within the bounds of Salem (Tenn.) congre- 
gation, and was converted under the ministry of 
Rev. J. H. Strong, in 1888, mostly through the 
quiet life and words of her mother. She was 
graduated from the Due West Female College in 
1 90 1. When only seven years old her mother read 
to her the life of our first missionary, Mrs. Mary 
Galloway Giffen, which determined her to be a 
missionary. Her purpose intensified with the 
passing years, till in 1903 when the Board appoint- 
ed her to the Mexican Mission. After one year 
spent in studying the language in Rioverde, she 
reached Tampico, December, 1904. For three 
years she did faithful service, till failure of health 
compelled her to resign and return to the States 
for rest and medical treatment. Sorrowfully she 
said "Thy will be done," and prayerfully awaited 
the divine summons to return. • Having regained 
her health sufficiently to return to the mission 
field, she was assigned to the Ciudad del Maiz 
school, reaching there April 13, 1910, where she 
at present labors. 

Wallace, Miss Fannie — She was the only daugh- 
ter of William Wallace and Mary Higgins, and 
was born March 31, 1873, at Paint Lick, Ky. 
When twelve years of age she was received into 
the communion of New Hope congregation. June 

127 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

30, 1890, she was graduated from the Due West 
Female College with the first honors of her class. 
After some post-graduate work she taught at Cor- 
sicana, Texas. While there she heard the call to 
foreign mission work, and was accepted by the 
Board for the Mexican Mission. After a short 
course of study in the Moody Bible School of 
Chicago, she left for Tampico, December, 1900, 
to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of 
Miss Boyce. After but four months of study she 
began her work in the school room. Her race 
was soon run. Two years, less one month, mark- 
ed the time limits of her missionary career, but 
the years were full for her Master. Nov. 16, 1902, 
she fell a victim to yellow fever, and went to be 
with her Eord, whom she loved so well. Among 
her last words were "I am resigned to God's will. 
My soul is at peace with Him." Her memory is 
as ointment poured forth. 

NATIVE MINISTERS. 

Butron, Enoc. — He was born in Antiguo More- 
los, Tamps, October 29, 1889. His educational 
advantages were exceedingly limited, and even 
more so were his opportunities for moral better- 
ment. In 1903 he was admitted to Preparatory 
School, where he completed the literary course of 
study. His mental grasp of facts and their rela- 
tions were those of a mature man and not those of 
a lad. One year after entering the school he was 

128 




SOME OF THE NATIVE PASTORS AND THE THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS. 

Rev. F. M. Meza. Rev. Enoc Butron. Rev. G. Cruz. 

Rev. Pedro Trujillo. 
P. Garcia, Student. P. Castillo, Student. F. Bautista, Student. 



OUR WORKERS. 

baptized into the faith of the gospel, and his intel- 
lectual precocity was not more wonderful than his 
rapid development in the deepest and best things 
of the life hid with Christ in God. The Presbytery 
of Tampico received him as student of theology in 
1908, and the following year licensed him to 
preach the gospel. Having finished his theological 
course in 1909, he was assigned to the pastorate 
of the congregation of Ciudad Fernandez. 

Cruz, Cresenciano. — He is the son of Rev. G. 
Cruz and Juana Zuniga, and was born in Charco 
Blanco, near Ciudad del Maiz, Sept. 14, 1875. He 
was one of the charter members of the congrega- 
tion of Ciudad del Maiz, having been received in 
1 89 1. When eighteen years old, he was sent to 
the States for his education. His literary course 
was pursued at Erskine College, and he was gradu- 
ated from the Theological Seminary in 1898. The 
same year he was licensed by the Second Presby- 
tery. Returning to his native land he was or- 
dained by the Tampico Presbytery in 1900, and 
was assigned work in Valles, where he has since 
labored. Gifted by nature and with his splendid 
opportunities for study which he most conscien- 
tiously improved, he is a most acceptable preacher 
of the gospel. In '1900 he was married to Sra. Eni- 
dina Gonzales. 

Cruz, Guadalupe — He was born Dec. 12, 1839, 
at Palomas, a ranch near Ciudad del Maiz. He 
never attended school. His father taught him to 

129 

M-9 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

read, and with an ambition to learn, he used the 
few books that fell into his hands and acquired a 
useful stock of information. When the mission- 
aries reached Ciudad del Maiz it was noised abroad 
that the foreign devils had come. Queer stories 
were circulated as to their beliefs. Curious to 
know what these new comers did teach, Sr. Cruz 
asked the missionaries for one of their books. Car- 
rying the Bible home, he said to his family, "This 
is the bad book of the hated Protestants. I am 
going to examine it carefully to see what they be- 
lieve. Till I have done so, no one in the house- 
hold dare touch it." He read it from Genesis to 
Revelation. Finishing the reading, he announced 
to his family that the book was of God, and that 
it was the truth. He was going to make the 
Protestants his people, and their God his God. 
His entire family followed and were baptized in 
1890. At once he felt that he was his brother's 
keeper, and asked to be allowed to preach the gos- 
pel to his fellowmen. The Presbytery licensed him 
in 1892 and three years later he was ordained. His 
conversion created no small stir, for he had been 
a Romanist of the straitest sect. The enemies 
of the cross plotted to kill him, but he was not a 
reed to be shaken by the winds of popular favor. 
On horseback he went through the ranches far and 
near, talking the way of salvation and giving away 
tracts. He is a most indefatigable worker. Though 
seventy-one years old, he will ride sixty miles dur- 



OUR WORKERS. 

ing the day and preach that night. Ever zealous 
and optimistic, he loves his calling with all his 
soul, and does noble service for his Lord. 

Hernandez, Inez. — He was born in Chontla, 
Vera Cruz, April 20, 1850. His father was a 
gambler of the most dissolute type, giving the 
son no opportunity to reach the best things in 
life. He grew up as a common lad of the ranch life. 
His father forbade him to attend the Protestant 
church, but he was religiously inclined, and when 
Rev. N. E. Pressly came to> Chiconcillo to preach 
the first time, Sr. Hernandez was received into the 
church. He had been at the head of a school in 
his little town. The infant congregation was left 
in his charge. He began a short course of study 
by correspondence under the missionary, and was 
ordained to the ministry in 1888. He was married 
to Senorita Rosaria Lugo. 

Meza, Francisco Mellado. — He was born in 
Panuco, Vera Cruz, Oct. 6, » 1870. He was left an 
orphan at the early age of three years. When but 
fourteen years old, Rev. Zaleta went to Panuco 
doing gospel work. Francisco, the young Indian, 
full blooded, was attracted by the tracts and the 
booklets distributed. These, with the instructions 
of Rev. Zaleta, won him for Christ, and he was 
baptized by Rev. N. E. Pressly in 1885. Convert- 
ed mind, body and soul, he would go with Rev. 
Zalata on his tours through the ranches and dis- 
tribute tracts. Often when the minister was un- 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

able to meet his appointments, he would send 
Francisco. After the death »of Rev. Zaleta, the 
Indian lad did good service from ranch to ranch, 
reading the Bible to the Indians. At the age of 
twenty, Rev. Pressly took him to Tampico, where 
he spent three years in study preparing himself 
for the gospel ministry. At Chiconcillo he was, 
in 1892, licensed to preach the gospel, and two 
years later he was ordained to full work of the 
ministry. The Presbytery stationed him at Tan- 
tima in 1894, where he has been laboring since. 
His lot is cast among the Indians. He loves them, 
their ways, their plains of palms and "jacales" of 
cane with thatched roofs, and strives to bring them 
under the power of the gospel. Throughout all 
that region he is known as a fearless exponent of 
those high, bedrock principles of righteousness and 
truth, and best of all, his life is a shining light. 
Senorita Galdina Botello became his wife in 1893 
and has been a noble helpmeet in the Lord. 

Sanchez, Tomas. — He was born in Valerosa de 
Peto, in the state of Yucatan, in 1872. He lived 
a nominal Roman Catholic, but a most dissolute 
character, till he was twenty-six years old. He 
came under the influence of a native Christian, a 
member of the Presbyterian Church of Merida, 
who gave him a Bible and persuaded Sr. Sanchez 
to accompany him to a gospel service. Just four 
months afterwards, he was received into the full 
communion of the church. Storms of persecution 

132 



OUR WORKERS. 

broke upon him. The bitterest enemies were those 
of his own household. His wife made life well 
nigh unbearable for him, but he stood bravely for 
the truth, and bore faithful testimony for his Lord, 
even when brought before the civil authorities 
who had received false accusations against him. 
None of these things moved him. He laid his 
heart upon the altar of the Master and strove to 
do His will, and soon saw his wife converted to 
the gospel she had so defiantly opposed for years. 
Rev. Chas. Millar, of the Presbyterian church, en- 
couraged him to study for the ministry, which he 
did. Reaching Coyoacan in 1905, he entered the 
Seminary. He accepted work in Ciudad Fernan- 
dez in 1909, where he remained for a few months 
until he was transferred to Cerritos. 

Torres, Simon S — He was born at Salinas del 
Tapado, S. L. P., Sept. 28, 1867. His family being 
nomadic in character, he was denied the opportuni- 
ties of even the most elementary education, till 
eighteen years of age. He came under the influ- 
ence of the Methodists, who led him to Christ in 
1885, and sent him to Laurens Institute of Mon- 
terey. Leaving school he felt something of the 
inward burning of the spirit of Paul, "Woe is me 
if I preach not the gospel." He heard that there 
were at Tantoyuca, Vera Cruz, two hundred miles 
away, several men liberally inclined, who had of- 
fered to support a minister who should preach 
them the words of life. He went to answer the 

133 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

call. They met their obligation for only two 
months, but the young herald of good news was 
not dismayed. Like the great apostle, he went to 
work with his hands, making shoes by day and 
preaching the gospel by night. Thus he labored 
for two years. In 1896 he asked to be received 
by the Tampico Presbytery, being licensed the 
following year. During his early days he imbibed 
not a little of the Methodist fire, and it has burned 
all through the years. His nature is of devotional 
type. He is a most loyal servant of the kingdom. 
On horseback, enduring hardness as a good sol- 
dier, he travels over his large parish feeding the 
multitudes with the bread of life. In 1896 he 
married one of his converts in Tantoyuca, Senorita 
Marcelina Echavarri. He resides at Chalahuite. 

Trujillo, Pedro. — He was the son of Cipriano 
Trujillo and Micaela Brito, and was born April 29, 
1846, in Mexico City. He was educated in the 
common schools, and then took a commercial 
course, receiving on graduation a certificate of 
proficiency, signed by the great Benito Juarez. 
While yet a young man he identified himself with 
the Protestant movement, then just beginning in 
Mexico. Through the preaching of a converted 
Catholic priest, Sr. Aguas, he was converted in 
1870, connecting with the Episcopal church. In 
1874, when Rev. Hutchinson of the Presbyterian 
mission began work in Mexico City, Sr. Trujillo 
with Sr. Morales, now called the Moody of Mexico, 

134 



OUR WORKERS. 

began gospel work under the direction of the 
Presbyterian missionary. Sr. Trujillo spent some 
time at Tisapan, after which he was sent to Tam- 
pico, where he labored till our mission was es- 
tablished there. In 1880 he was transferred at his 
own request to our mission, and in 1884 was or- 
dained to full work of the gospel ministry. Asso- 
ciated with the missionary of Tampico, he labors 
in that congregation as well as those of Dona 
Cecilia and Las Lomas del Real. Linked with 
his natural gifts, his deep piety makes him an ef- 
ficient minister of the gospel. 

Zaleta, Zenon. — He was born in Ozuluamo, 
Vera Cruz, April 12, 1855. From Chiconcillo he 
went to Tampico to work, and was there con- 
verted, being the first man baptized in the Mexi- 
can Mission. His was a salvation too genuine to 
admit of a doubt. The world had no charm for 
him. With something of the yearning of Paul 
over the Jewish nation, he longed to carry the 
gospel to his own people. After three years of 
study under Dr. Pressly, he was licensed by the 
Tampico Presbytery in 1885, and sent to Panuco, 
Vera Cruz. His career was short. Only three 
years was he permitted to work for the Master, 
but they were full years. He fell a victim to the 
white plague, and in 1888 he fell asleep in Jesus. 
He was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. 



135 



CHAPTER IX. 

OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

By all means save some is our supreme ambition 
and all-determining missionary aim; and any 
instrumentality that will administer to that end 
must be pressed into service. No worker will tie 
himself down to any ironclad list of agencies for 
making the gospel known to those without God 
and without hope. Rather any legitimate help 
will be used that will effectively bring the gospel 
to bear on the minds and hearts of those com- 
mitted to our spiritual keeping. When the la- 
mented Mrs. Emma Hunter, who was without a 
peer in the sphere of soul-winning, went to Ciudad 
del Maiz, she found that the people stood aloof 
from the missionaries. Her ingenuity began* to de- 
vise some means that would bring her in touch 
with the women. She saw that all the Mexican 
ladies were lovers of flowers, and so she brought 
from the United States flower seed, and not a few 
dared to enter the missionary home to buy the 
foreign flowers. She would seize the opportunity 
to tell them of the "Rose of Sharon and the Lily 
of the valley." She also brought little cake pans 
and other novelties that would attract the people 
and bridge the wide gulf which fanaticism had 
reared between her and the souls she labored to 
win. 

136 





OUR DECEASED MISSIONARIES. 

Rev. J. S. A. Hunter. Mrs. Emma McDill Hunter. 

Miss Fannie Wallace. Miss Mattie Boyce. 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

Nearby was a large plantation owned by an 
American. She offered to sell the sugar from her 
front window, and selling it cheap, many of the 
poor came to buy. She made nothing in dollars 
and cents, but she was always ready with a word 
for her Lord. When they came on Sabbath, she 
told them why she could not sell and urged the 
obligation to keep the Lord's day of rest. 

And every field has its own ways of working. 
The nature of the conditions obtaining there de- 
termine which are the most practicable. The wise 
general surveys well the field on which the mili- 
tary operations are to be cast, and with all the 
data in mind, decides whether he will rush the 
mounted cavalry or bring up, the lines of infantry; 
whether he will order a bayonet charge or use the 
long range siege guns; whether he will storm the 
opposing lines or throw up breastworks and lie on 
the defensive. It is so with the soldiers on the far- 
flung battle lines of missionary conquest. In China 
the missionaries go through the streets preaching 
the gospel to the curious crowds that gather on 
the corners or in the market places. In Mexico 
the law expressly forbids any religious service on 
the street. For this reason is barred out the noble 
Salvation Army that in other lands has won from 
the depths of woe so many immortal souls and 
sent them toward glory with a new song in their 
mouths. In Africa great stress is laid on Indus- 
trial Missions, whereas in Mexico in all the forty 

137 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

years of gospel effort only one attempt has been 
made along that line and it is in its bare incipiency. 
However, there are certain agencies which are 
practicable in all mission fields. By common con- 
sent they are the most effective. Of these used 
by our mission, let us take them up for study one 
by one. 

Evangelistic Work. 

This refers to the preaching of the gospel by 
the missionary or the native pastor, from the pul- 
pits of the organized congregations, in the homes 
where they are permitted to hold services however 
informal, and on itinerating trips through the 
country. To convey a clear idea of the modus 
operandi, the fields will be discussed in the order 
of the organization. 

i. The Tampico Field. Rev. N. E. Pressly, 
Superintendent. 

(i) The Tampico Congregation, Revs. N. E. 
Pressly and Pedro Trujillo, pastors. A colporteur, 
Francisco Escobar, reached Tampico in 1875 and 
succeeded in selling a number of Bibles. Impress- 
ed with the possibilities of the town, on returning 
to Mexico City he urged Rev. Hutchinson to send 
a gospel worker there. Sr. Pedro Trujillo answer- 
ed the call, reaching the port Dec. 26, 1875. The 
opposition was exceedingly bitter and the progress 
very slow. When Rev. N. E. Pressly, after one 
year of study was ready for work, and our Board 

138 



.""> 



■Uj^ * v * Q^"%^.!4jtJ^y^^^S^^ w* 




THE CHURCH OF TAMPICO. 




THE GRAVE OF THE LATE MISS FANNIE WALLACE. 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

was casting about for a base of opera- 
tions, the Presbyterian Board cheerfully turn- 
ed over to our church the Tampico sta- 
tion, both on account of the discouragements 
and the inaccessibility of the field from their cen- 
ter. From the first an old warehouse on Muelle 
street served as a chapel. Those were trying days 
for the lone gospel heralds. But they had in their 
spiritual makeup that of which martyrs are made, 
and against fearful odds contended earnestly for 
the faith. For more than a year no one dared 
enter the chapel save the missionaries and their 
families. Fanaticism excluded all the rest. About 
eighteen months passed and the light began to 
break upon the dense darkness. The first person 
baptized was a poor old blind lady, Jesus Gonzalez. 
Others were received, and July 3, 1881, the Lord's 
Supper was administered for the first time there. 
For ten years the congregation worshipped in the 
chapel. In 1889 a lot was bought on Muelle and 
Estrado streets, and a beautiful church erected, 
costing $5550. It was dedicated Jan. 17, 1890. 

Under the supervision of the pastor and asso- 
ciate, the work has grown to a membership of 
117. «And the cause has grown financially as well, 
paying each year the salary of Rev. Pedro Trujillo 
in full. A Christian Endeavor Society, with one 
hundred and nine members contributing last year 
$217.13, a Sabbath School of one hundred and 
twenty-five members, and a Juvenile Society of 31, 

139 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

under the direction of Miss Made Stevenson, are 
most valuable helpers in the work of the congre- 
gation. 

(2) Dona Cecilia. Revs. N. E. Pressly and 
Pedro Trujillo, pastors. This is a suburban town 
of Tampico, three miles farther toward the beach. 
Repair shops of the National Railways of Mexico 
and branch works of the Standard Oil Co. are lo- 
cated there, both of which attract many seeking 
employment. Gospel work was begun there, 
August, 1 90 1. Eleven members have been gath- 
ered into the church. Last year they contributed 
$100 towards the building fund for the Tantima 
chapel. 

(3) Las Lomas del Real. Revs. N. E. Pressly 
and Pedro Trujillo, pastors. The town lies on the 
coast to the north of Tampico, about 25 miles dis- 
tant. Well nigh the entire population of 500 in- 
habitants are engaged in the salt business. The 
northern winds bring the sea water overland into 
artificial lakes, where the salt is deposited, the 
water having escaped by evaporation. Sixteen 
years ago the gospel found entrance there. Far 
back in 1903 a Bible was picked up from a trash 
pile in Tampico and fell into the hands of Sr. 
Pedro Garcia of Las Lomas del Real. He read the 
book with ever sharpening avidity. Its teachings 
gripped his heart and life. At the same time there 
came to his town a silversmith who had fled from 
the fierce persecution which the Protestants on the 

140 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

Pacific coast suffered. Daily as he worked he kept 
his Bible before him, and when anyone entered he 
hid it in his drawer. One day Dn. Pedro saw the 
book and insisted that he be allowed to read its 
pages. The two men became mutual helpers in the 
Lord. They invited Rev. Pedro Trujillo, of Tampi- 
co, to preach in their town and in the home of Dn. 
Pedro. The missionary at once entered the opened 
door and the first service was held Dec. 30, 1903. 
Sr. Garcia became the life of the work. In his 
home was made ready the chamber for the com- 
ing* of the prophet once a month. On the other 
Sabbaths he gathered the little band in his home 
and taught them the way of life in Christ. His 
was a light that burned and shone. He stirred 
the members with the purpose of building a chapel 
and though when first finished it was well nigh 
destroyed by a cyclone, they had a mind to work 
and rebuilt the house of worship, which was dedi- 
cated in August, 1909. The membership has 
grown to twenty in the face of the most bitter 
opposition. In 1909 Dn. Pedro was called to serve 
in the upper sanctuary. Under his leadership the 
little body of Christians have borne most telling 
testimony for the Lord there, and now that he 
will meet no more with them, to judge by the past, 
they will still hold forth the word of life, shining as 
a light in a dark place. 

(4) Chiconcillo. * Rev. Inez Hernandez, pastor. 
The village lies one hundred miles south of Tam- 

141 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

pico. A young man, Zenon Zaleta, had gone from 
Chiconcillo to Tampico to learn the blacksmith's 
trade. There he was converted and became instru- 
mental in opening the way for the missionary to 
go to his native village and preach the gospel in 
1882, when a goodly number were received into 
the church. The present membership is 37. Tapa 
Boca and La Labor are offsprings from this con- 
gregation. At the former place Rev. Hernandez 
preaches* from time to time. Estero, with 10 mem- 
bers, is another branch of Chiconcillo, where Don 
Pablo Morato reads and explains the Word of 
God to the ranchmen each Sabbath. 

(5) Chalahuite. Rev. S. S. Torres, pastor. The 
worker was transferred to Chalahuite in 1907. It is 
a village of five hundred souls, about 25 miles from 
Tuxpan. There the worker has won thirteen souls 
for Christ, at San Francisco a neighboring ranch 
of three hundred inhabitants, twenty souls, and 
at San Lorenzo, another ranch near, of fifty 
people, six members. 'Many of these were mem- 
bers, or related to members of Chiconcillo. At 
San Lorenzo, a member, Sr. Nicefero Santiago, has 
built at his own expense a little chapel costing 
approximately $400. 

(6) Tantima. Rev. Francisco Meza, pastor. The 
town has a population of 1550 souls, and is situat- 
ed about one hundred miles southwest of Tampico. 
Rev. N. E. Pressly preached there in 1882, but no 
regular work was attempted till 1893, when Rev, 

142 




n h " 




WA ^1 



REV. S. S. TORRES AND CONGREGATIONS. 




THE TANTIMA CHAPEL. 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

Meza was placed in charge of the station. The 
field has been an unusually difficult one, still 
twenty-two souls have been led out of the dark- 
ness into the light of life. In 1909 a commodious 
building was bought and converted into a chapel 
costing $750. From this center the pastor visits 
Ozuluama and La Labor, preaching once and 
twice a month. At the latter ranch are 19 mem- 
bers. 

(7) Vega de Otates. Rev. N. E. Pressly, pastor. 
This is a small ranch of about fifty inhabitants a 
few miles from Panuco, Vera Cruz. Work was 
begun there by Rev. Zenon Zaleta. From time 
to time Dr. Pressly makes pastoral visits there. 
The membership is 9. 

2. The Ciudad del Maiz Field. Rev. H. E. 
Pressly, Superintendent. 

(1) Ciudad del Maiz Congregation. Rev. H. E. 
Pressly, pastor. After one year of study in Tam- 
pico, Rev. J. S. A. Hunter took an itinerating trip 
through the state of San Luis Potosi with the view 
of selecting a station for work. He chose Ciudad 
del Maiz. With his family he reached there April 
6, 1889. Going by train over the National R. R. 
to Rascon, the terminus of the road then built, 
but subsequently projected to San Luis Potosi, 
they completed the journey in a coach over fifty- 
five miles of the roughest mountain road. Of all 
the towns of the state none was more fiercely fan- 

M3 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

atical than this to which they had come. It was 
by a sheer work of Providence that they secured 
a house. They had rented the place and were 
settled before the owners hardly knew who they 
were and what their business. One night they 
walked out to the public square. A friend after- 
wards told them that he had followed them home, 
feeling sure that they would be attacked and pos- 
sibly killed. On the streets rocks were thrown at 
them. Through the windows stones were hurled 
at the missionary while preaching. They were 
looked upon as veritable demons and the crowds 
would mete out to them such treatment as the 
emissaries of the infernal regions deserved. But 
God had a work for them. Their hour had not 
come. For one year the missionary preached to 
an audience composed of his wife and children. 
Even the cook would always smoke as she passed 
through the house "to keep the evil spirits from 
entering her," so she said. Undismayed by these 
things seemingly against them, the missionaries 
toiled and prayed and waited. After two years of 
effort, lacking two months, God's set time came, 
and twelve were baptized, the first fruits of their 
labors. Of these charter members, two afterwards 
became ministers of the gospel, Revs. G. and C. 
Cruz. Two years later a lot in the central section 
of the town was bought. On one side of the lot 
was a house which became the parsonage, while 
on the other side was built and dedicated, Dec. 

144 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

12, 1896, a handsome church edifice, costing $7,- 
000. The present membership consists of 33 per- 
sons, the Christian Endeavor Society has 40, the 
Juvenile Society 37 members, and the Sabbath 
School 42. Aside from the expenses of the con- 
gregational work, $75 was contributed last year 
toward the salary of Rev. Torres, the missionary 
of the Presbytery. 

(2) La Colonia de Gutierrez, Rev. G. Cruz, pas- 
tor. La Colonia is a village of 250 souls, seven 
miles east 'from Ciudad del Maiz. About 1892 
Rev. G. Cruz began work there, and after two 
years the first converts were baptized. Quite a 
large proportion of the inhabitants are Italians and 
most' stubbornly fanatical. Still the seed sown has 
brought forth a harvest of thirteen souls. A neat 
little chapel, with a seating capacity of fifty per- 
sons, has been built. The membership is 13.* 

(3) San Antonio. Rev. H. E. Pressly, pastor. 
The village lies to the north of Ciudad del Maiz 
twelve miles distant. Revs. Hunter and G. Cruz 
have made itinerating trips through the place from 
time to time, talking and preaching the gospel, 
till they succeeded in organizing a little congrega- 
tion on Dec. 16, 1906. Intensely fanatical at first, 
much of the opposition has been overcome, till 
eighteen souls have come out on the Lord's side, 
representing five families. There is an average at- 
tendance of 35 at the preaching services held week- 
ly. A beautiful little chapel has been erected, cost- 

145 

M-10 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

ing $400, contributed by the Young People's So- 
cieties of the Synod, and was dedicated April, 
1906, Rev. J. R. Edwards preaching the sermon. 

(4) Valles. Rev. Crecenciano Cruz, pastor. 
Gospel work was begun in June, 1899. The fol- 
lowing year the first members were received. Since 
that time thirty-one have been received, of whom 
nineteen are at present members. Among these 
are represented six families. Last year $336 were 
contributed toward the work of the Lord. Owing 
to the liberal spirit of the place, gospel work makes 
slow progress there. 

3. The Rioverde Field. Rev. J. G. Dale, 

Superintendent. 

(1) The Rioverde Congregation. Rev. J. G. 
Dale, pastor. The pioneer worker of this field 
was Rev. J. R. Edwards, who opened the mission 
in Rioverde, May 10, 1894. Prior to his arrival, 
Sr. Forcado, a native minister, had preached for 
a short while* in the town, but left no visible 
result of his labors. He had retired before 
the missionary arrived. The sowing of the good 
seed found the same rocky soil of ignorance and 
superstition, the same scorching rays of fanaticism 
as had attended gospel efforts in other parts. Dur- 
ing the first two years, nine members were receiv- 
ed into the church. The services were held in the 
home of the missionary till 1897, when a substan- 
tial chapel, costing $1500, was erected near the 

146 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

center of the town. After fourteen years of labor, 
Rev. Edwards was compelled to retire from the 
field on account of ill health, but his efforts had not 
fallen short of an abundant fruitage. Sixty-four 
persons had been received into the church, a hand- 
some chapel had been built for the congregation, 
a neat house of worship had been erected in Ciudad 
Fernandez, a parsonage and an Orphanage home, 
all finished without the extra cost of an architect 
or contractor. Besides he had carried the gospel 
into Mojarres, a little ranch twenty-five miles in 
the mountains, and had won there three souls for 
his Lord. Gifted with a special linguistic ability 
that enabled him to take hold of his work with a 
vigorous grasp after only a few months of study, 
with a capacity to form friendships that made the 
onslaughts of fanaticism less effective, and with a 
fitness for pastoral work that endeared him to his 
flock by ties that years can not sever, this pioneer 
herald of the cross proved himself worthy of a 
place among those heroes who stand at the front 
amid the thickest of the fight, faithful and true. 

When Rev. J. R. Edwards retired from the field 
in 1907 because of ill health, the work was placed 
in charge of Rev. J. G. Dale, then at the head of 
the Preparatory and Theological School, he still 
retaining his place in the educational work. Locat- 
ed at the principal educational center of the mis- 
sion, the congregation has magnificent advantages 
for gospel effort among the student body of the 

H7 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

schools. For these, special services are held each 
year in the chapel. The good hand of God has 
been upon the congregational activities. The 
present membership is 97. The Sabbath School 
with 126 pupils, the Christian Endeavor Society 
with 53 members, the Junior Endeavor Society 
with 40 little workers, and the Woman's Aid So- 
ciety with 40 devoted Dorcases, are noble helpers 
in the Lord's vineyard. Notable is the spirit of 
prayer among the members. Each Sabbath morn- 
ing after the religious service, more than an hour 
long, volunteers wait for an half-hour of prayer for 
the coming of the Spirit upon the congregational 
efforts, and from fifty to seventy-five spend the 
season waiting upon God for power. 

(2) Ciudad Fernandez. Rev. Enoc Butron, pas- 
tor. Prior to 1900 Rev. Edwards had preached 
there occasionally. A neat chapel was erected in 
1900 and dedicated the following year. The 
structure cost about $400. Owing to the dogged 
fanaticism of the town, as well as the lack of a 
regular pastor, the progress has been very slow. 
Though Rev. Tomas Sanchez had charge of Ciu- 
dad Fernandez for several months in 1909, much 
of his time was spent in Cerritos in the interest of 
the work there. Sixteen members have been re- 
ceived since the organization. 

(3) Cerritos. Rev. Tomas Sanchez, pastor. 
This field has suffered from the repeated interrup- 
tions in the history of the missionary efforts there. 

148 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

Years ago a Presbyterian native minister was sta- 
tioned at that point, but after a few months of 
work was moved to another place. After the lapse 
of several years, Rev. J. G. Dale was stationed 
there, but within a few months was placed in 
charge of the Preparatory and Theological school, 
and was transferred to Rioverde. No native min- 
ister having been available, the field was abandon- 
ed till 1909, when Rev. Sanchez made monthly 
trips. To add to the difficulties of the field, the 
Catholic Church has lost its grip on many of the 
influential families, and these have come to regard 
themselves as belonging to> the liberal class, which 
is but another name for infidelity. However, the 
labors there have not been in vain. In April, 1910, 
a church was organized with six members and with 
about twenty-five adherents. 

(4) Cardenas. Rev. J. G. Dale, pastor. The 
town is situated on the National Railway line from 
San Luis Potosi to Tampico, about fifty miles east 
of Cerritos, and by rail the same distance from 
Rioverde. The repair shops being located there, 
families come from the surrounding country seek- 
ing employment. It has a population of about 
800 souls. The congregation was organized in 
1909. Occasional pastoral visits are made from 
Rioverde. Due to the fact that the services are 
not held with any regularity, the progress has not 
been rapid. The members, eleven in number, 

H9 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

meet each Sabbath for the study of the Word of 
God. It is a most loyal little band of believers. 

Educational Work. 

The ultimate end of the mission school is not 
the social uplift or the mere intellectual betterment 
of heathen childhood. Laudable as are these as- 
pirations in themselves, something nobler nerves 
the missionary teacher to meet the hard tasks that 
draw so heavily upon the energies of head and 
heart. They would lift the heathen children up 
out of the wild, heathen surroundings, lead them 
from the lowlands of gross ignorance, where bigot- 
ed fanaticism best thrives and give them visions 
of those things, pure, lovely and of good report. 
They would save them from the foul forces of 
heathendom that would issue in their eternal moral 
wreckage and transform them into characters that 
will burn and shine like veritable light-houses, 
sending their rays of gospel light far out on the 
reefs of heathen error and sin. And best of all, 
they would lead the children to the feet of Jesus, 
enable them to see Him the chiefest of ten thou- 
sand, the One altogether lovely, and give their 
lives to Him with utter abandon, to become effici- 
ent soul winners to turn many to Him who alone 
can bear away the sin of the world. In a word, 
they labor and pray to win their pupils for Christ, 
and through them reach the heathen homes, con- 
verting these into centers of great spiritual bless- 

150 




MISSIONARY TEACHERS. 

Miss Lavinia Neel. Miss Janie JLove. 

Miss Jennie Gettys. Miss Macie Stevenson. 

Miss Anna Strong. Mrs. Kosema Hunter. 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

ing. To attain these high ends, the mission 
schools have peculiar fitness. They become most 
powerful agencies. 

The mission school touches the child life at a 
period when the strongest impression can be made 
for the gospel. Before the strange superstitions 
of the unlettered have found lodgment in their 
minds; before 'they have breathed for long years 
the polluting atmosphere of shameless impurity; 
before the heart is hardened by idolatry and its 
long trains of evils, the missionary teacher has an 
opportunity to mould the tender, responsive heart 
for Christ. Statistics assert that the greatest num- 
ber of conversions are registered between the ages 
of fifteen and sixteen. If such be true in Christian 
lands where the ennobling influence of the holy 
tenets of our faith throw about the homes the 
safeguards of protection, with more reason may 
we expect the statement to hold good in heathen 
lands. And through the schools brought under 
the power of the gospel while young, they become 
like the plant that grows straight and erect from 
the very ground, while our converts, saved after 
decades and scores of years of superstition and 
idolatry, find their likeness in the twig that grew 
bent toward the earth, and long afterward had its 
topmost bough turned upward. It always re- 
mained crooked. How often, after years of spir- 
itual training, we find aged converts still morally 
crooked by some inherited heathen sin. Not so 

151 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

with the child that has passed through the biblical 
curriculum of the mission school. At the tender 
age the sprout is made to grow heavenward and 
Godward. 

Two travelers once < stood at a heathen tem- 
ple door. A mother drew near with her ill-shaped 
child, and falling at the foot of the steps that led 
up to the heathen god, she prayed, "O grant that 
my child may grow fair. Grant that my child may 
grow lovely. Grant that it may grow strong. O 
hear the cry of a mother and a mother's breaking 
heart." As she turned to go, one of the strangers 
asked, "Friend, to whom did you pray?" "I do 
not know," she said, "but there must be somebody 
to hear the cry of a mother and keep a mother's 
heart from breaking." That one is the conse- 
crated missionary teacher. She will make the 
child to grow fair, lovely and strong. 

The missionary school has the decided advan- 
tage of a sustained influence of the teacher on the 
child. The missionary pastor has his flock gath- 
ered about him for an hour or two and three times 
each week. The mission teacher holds her school 
under her personal influence for five days of the 
week for nine months of the year. With her desk 
as pulpit she has the two or three score children 
for an audience all day long. And very particu- 
larly is this true of the boarding school. The es- 
tablishment is made a home with its daily drill 

152 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

in the holy principles of Christ, and under the con- 
stant inspiration of a heavenly atmosphere. 

The missionary school is & forerunner of the 
gospel. It prepares the way for the Word of God 
to enter the homes, whose doors are barred to the 
approach of the gospel herald. Roman Catholic 
families, taught to believe that Protestant mission- 
aries are proselyting emissaries rof the infernal 
realms of darkness, feel that for a missionary to 
pass the threshold of the home would be hardly 
less sacrilegious than that a Jew should allow a 
Gentile to enter the holy of holies. And yet, till 
the homes are won, little or no permanent impres- 
sion can be made on the nation. Christianity must 
touch these fountain heads ere the streams of in- 
fluence flow out and on through the far-reaching 
circles of society, if the whole social fabric is to be 
regenerated. How shall we bring the gospel to 
storm and take this citadel, this center of the 
throbbing soul-life of the people. Elisha, before 
he could raise to life the breathless form of the lad 
of Shunem, must place his warm body upon the 
cold, lifeless form, eye upon eye, mouth upon 
mouth, and limb upon limb, till, by the dynamic 
energy of prayer he brought him to life again. It 
is the lesson of vital personal contact. Precisely 
this is the province of the school. It offers the 
point of contact. The child carries into the fan- 
atical home the gospel truths learned at the teach- 
er's desk. They become the common talk in the 

153 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

family circle. And better still. The teacher, 
through the affection of the pupil, gains the good 
will of the parent and it comes to pass that in nine- 
tenths of the homes represented in the school, the 
teacher is made welcome, and in well nigh every 
instance is allowed to read the Bible and offer 
prayer. The teacher labors to have pupils attend 
the meetings of the Christian Endeavor Society, 
or the Sabbath School, and be it said to> the praise 
of our teachers, fully three-fourths of the children 
do attend. This becomes a first and almost sure 
step toward getting them to attend a preaching 
service. It inevitably results that some of the fam- 
ily go. Thus the missionary teacher bridges the 
yawning chasm between the homes and the 
church, and becomes a connecting link by which 
to draw families to the house of God. 

The missionary school has added vantage 
ground because of the urgent need of educational 
.institutions in the country. The government is 
doing nobly for the cause of education, spending 
$6,805,074 annually in maintaining 9710 schools. 
When viewed in the light of the stupendous task 
that confronted the government, this showing is 
commendable. Because of centuries of warfare, 
battling for its national life and quelling the con- 
stant revolutions, the national energies have been 
spent in arms and in repleting the losses of war, 
rather than on schools and their equipment. On 
the other hand, viewed in the light of what re- 

154 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

mains to be done, the need is most urgent. The 
census of 1900 reported that there were in the 
Republic 4,129,142 children under twelve years of 
age, who could neither read nor write. The latest 
authority asserts that "more than 8,000,000 who 
have reached their majority who can neither read 
nor write." For the stupendous task of enlight- 
ening these, the schools that have been established 
are not sufficient. And the difficulties are multi- 
plied fourfold, because of the fact that there are so 
many different dialects among the Indian popula- 
tion. This loud need-cry, the growing thirst for 
light, the recognized superiority of the ■ evangelical 
schools, and the awakening desire to study English 
which is taught in all our schools, these considera- 
tions give the missionary schools a lever of power 
of which the Church may well be proud. What 
are our schools doing to enter these wide-open 
doors? 

1. The Tampico School. Teachers, Misses 
Macie Stevenson and Jennie Gettys. 
Jan. 16, 1893, the school was opened in a« rented 
building, which was afterwards bought by the 
Board and since used for the school exercises. 
Misses Stevenson and Boyce were the pioneers. 
The first morning they had only three pupils, but 
three more came in before the day was over. The 
enrollment has grown to ninety-five. After five 
years of splendid service, broken health compelled 
Miss Boyce to retire from the work. She was 

155 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

succeeded by Miss Fannie Wallace who after two 
years of service most unsparingly given her Lord, 
was called to her eternal reward. Miss 'Anna 
Strong took up her work but her health failed and 
she was compelled to return to the States after 
three -years. Miss Jennie Gettys has taken her 
place. The school under Miss Stevenson's guid- 
ing hand and the help of her associates, has 
been a noble handmaid to the congregational 
efforts of the town. Beside the daily Bible study 
in the class room, the teachers visit the homes of 
the children and read the Word of God to the 
parents. Seventeen of the pupils have accepted 
Christ, and nearly all have given full proof of a 
change of heart and a hope of heaven. Several 
mothers have been brought to Christ through the 
influence of the school. Last year forty-two of the 
pupils were enrolled in the Sabbath School and 
twenty-two in the Junior Endeavor Society. In 
1906 Dr. Pressly raised, within the bounds of the 
Synod, funds for the erection of a new and com- 
modious building, which will widen and deepen 
the sphere of the educational efforts of the insti- 
tution. 

2. The Ciudad del Maiz 'School. Teachers, 

Mrs. Rosema Hunter and Miss Anna 

Strong. 

For a year or two Mrs. Emma Hunter had gath- 
ered in her home several little girls, and had given 

156 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

them such instruction as she was able aside from 
her other duties. The school was formally opened 
on the arrival of Miss Lavinia Neel in 1903. For 
ten* years it was under her care till she was placed 
in charge of the Hattie May Chester Institute. 
Miss Janie Love took charge of the school the year 
following, remaining there for five years till trans- 
ferred' to the Rioverde School. She was succeeded 
by Mrs. Rosema Hunter. Beginning with three 
pupils, the school has grown till last year it had an 
enrollment of seventy-five. Miss Anna Strong 
having regained her • health was returned to the 
Mission in 1909 and appointed to this School. Fully 
one-half of all the children are members of the 
Christian Endeavor Society or the Junior En- 
deavor Society. Besides the daily teaching of the 
Bible in the school, the teachers hold a prayer 
meeting in the school room on Friday afternoons, 
which is attended by nine-tenths of the children 
enrolled. They also make stated visits into the 
homes of the parents, where the Bible is read. 
Personally the teachers go to the homes of the 
children, inviting and bringing them to the ser- 
vices of the sanctuary. Through this agency small 
schools have been established in La Colonia with 
nine pupils, and in San Antonio with forty-five. A 
substantial structure was bought in 1897 just 
across the street from the church costing $1000, 
which has been dedicated to the work of the 
school. 

157 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

3. The Rioverde School. Teachers, Misses 
Lavinia'Neel and Janie Love. 

It was formally opened February 23, 1897, with 
eight pupils. After six years, under the direction 
of different native teachers, the work was placed 
under the care of Miss Lavinia Neel. Daily Bible 
study and daily prayer in the school room, visits 
in the homes of the pupils, and personal dealing 
with the children are the means used to bring the 
children under the influence of Christ. The enroll- 
ment last year was 79. Of these, ten were received 
into the church, making twenty-three conversions 
from the school during the present management. 
Fifty of the pupils are members of the Sabbath 
School, eleven belong to the Christian Endeavor 
Society and thirty-two are members of the Junior 
Society of Christian Endeavor. 

In 1905 the boarding department was intro- 
duced, the boarders occupying a rented house. 
Two years later it was combined with the Orph- 
anage, then under the direction of Mrs. Amelia 
Edwards, and the institution was thereafter known 
as the Hattie May Chester Institute with Miss 
Neel as principal. In 1909 Miss Janie Love was 
transferred from Ciudad del Maiz to this school. 
Last year thirty-three boarders attended. They 
come from many » different fields of the Mission. A 
splendid opportunity is thus presented to make the 
girls and young ladies disciples of Christ. Aside 
from the regular Bible study of the daily 'classes, 

15s' 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

special prayer meetings are held for the girls and 
the teachers aim to surround the school with the 
holy* influences of a truly Christian home. Keeping 
the students under the inspiration of the daily prac- 
tice of these great principles of our faith for nine 
months of the year and day by day, as well as by 
personal effort, the teachers strive to make the 
most of their opportunities for Christ. 

A TROPHY OF THE SCHOOL WORK. 

Senorita Elena Manrique entered the Ciudad 
del Maiz school ten years ago a giddy girl from a 
most fanatical home. She promised little for the 
kingdom of the Lord. The gross idolatry of her 
people and the surging high tide of worldliness, 
with its balls, etc., were but tares tending to choke 
any good seed sown in the school room. But the 
daily drill in all that pertains unto life and godli- 
ness and the constant touch with the teacher be- 
gan to triumph over the evil influences and mould 
her without her recognition of the change. She 
came to the Hattie May Chester Institute as a 
boarder. There the world was shut out and the 
leaven of the gospel began to work. Soon she 
asked to be baptized, knowing full well what 
awaited her in her fanatical home. She said that 
she loved Jesus best and was willing to be counted 
as the offscouring of the world for His sake. And 
nothing less than that was the price she paid. She 
developed into a character of unusual fixedness of 

159 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

purpose and unflinching solidity. Her testimony 
among the girls was always for the things best and 
noblest. Having finished her course, she returned 
to her home to be tested in the furnace of persecu- 
tion heaten seven times hotter than it was fc wont. 
Her family and friends gave balls, etc., in her honor 
to make her attend and so effect her* fall from the 
lofty plane of weanedness from the world upon 
which she had pitched her life. The whole current 
of her former circle — for she had been a belle of 
her class — set in to win her back to Catholicism 
and the world, which are one. Failing in their 
fiendish attempt, they threatened to tear her from 
her surroundings and force her into a convent. So 
intensely fierce did the fires rage that one evening 
she found a revolver aimed at her with the de- 
mand that she recant and renounce her Lord 
Christ for the old life of saint worship and balls. 
With that spiritual iron in her blood that reminds 
us of the old prophets and the believers of the 
first century who were sawn asunder rather than 
deny their faith and went to the flames • singing, 
she stood through it all unflinchingly true to her 
Lord. When, one year ago, we asked her if she 
would go to San Ciro, one of the most fanatical 
towns in all this section and open a school there, 
and thus prepare for the establishment of a preach- 
ing station later, her instant reply was, "I am ready 
to go to any place where the Master may call me." 

160 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

And she is one of the many for the making and 
the moulding of whom the efforts of the schools 
are indeed worth while. 

4. The Preparatory and Theological 
School. Principal, Rev. J. G. Dale. 

For twenty-two* years the mission moved along 
without a college for the higher education of our 
young men, and without a training school where 
those young men whom God should call to the 
work of the ministry might receive a preparatory 
course of study. The missionaries had picked up 
here and there such men as they felt would help in 
the evangelization of the field, and after a short 
period of study in the elementary branches of the 
common school and the rudimentary principles of 
theology, they were placed in charge of stations. 
Prior to the establishment of the school in 1901, 
and after twenty-two years of missionary labor in 
Mexico, we had in the service only six native men. 
Of these, one had come from the Presbyterian 
church, one from the Methodist church, and one 
had been educated in the States. Rev. N. E. 
Pressly had found Sr. Francisco Meza, and after 
two years of study had sent him to Tantima. He 
had given Sr. Hernandez a short correspondence 
course of study and left him in charge of Chicon- 
cillo. Sr. Zaleta had studied under Rev. Pressly 
and had gone to Panuco, but after three years of 
service had been called to rest. Rev. J. S. A. Hun- 

161 

M-11 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

ter had taken Sr. Guadalupe Cruz, then fifty years 
old, had taught him the fundamental things «of 
the gospel and had placed him in charge of La 
Colonia. This is the record of our missionary ef- 
forts in the direction of the preparation of a native 
ministry for the quarter of a century, lacking three 
years. And nothing had been done for the higher 
education of our young men. 

Thus arose the crying need of an institution for 
the equipment of a qualified native ministry, not 
to speak of the duty of the mission towards the 
hundreds of boys and young men scattered over 
the field, for no less than at home do we need an 
intelligent and consecrated laity. These were the 
considerations that led the Synod which met at 
Louisville, Ga., in 1900, to pass the resolution of- 
fered by the Committee on Foreign Missions, or- 
dering the Board to take steps toward the estab- 
lishment of an institution on the mission field that 
would meet these two recognized needs. 

The Board appointed Rev. J. G. Dale, principal 
of the school. It was located in Rioverde, and 
opened January, 1901, with two students. From 
its very inception the undertaking has had to bat- 
tle with gigantic obstacles. Prior to its opening 
there were operated on the field three evangelical 
schools; one was barely beginning, the second re- 
ceived boys under twelve years of age and the 
third admitted no boys at all. The Preparatory 
school was forced to gather up boys without edu- 

16? 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

cation and less moral training, and launch its bark 
bound for the port of an intelligent laity and a 
qualified ministry. Under these circumstances 
there was no immediate hope for students for the 
higher branches and none for a native ministry 
for several years. It would be necessary to lay the 
foundations of an elementary education, and on 
this basis rear the structure of a solid, even though 
short, literary training, and a further theological 
preparation for the high calling of the gospel min- 
istry. Thus it has come to pass that the students 
matriculated in the school are of ages that range 
from twelve to thirty years. And all these had to 
begin with the most elementary branches of study. 
Another serious difficulty arises from the failure 
of the parents to appreciate the worth of a Chris- 
tian education. They prefer to place their sons 
where they can earn something to help the family 
along in its strivings for a livelihood. And where 
they enter the school and learn to read, write and 
multiply numbers, the temptation is all the strong- 
er, for then the youth can command a better sal- 
ary and be of more service to his family. Many 
young men have gone out from the school before 
they have entered upon the higher and more fun- 
damental stage of the curriculum. Thus the school 
has at times been robbed of good material out of 
which might have developed competent teachers, 
capable laymen or worthy preachers of the gospel. 

163 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Perhaps the most insurmountable obstacle that 
besets the progress of the work is the class of ma- 
terial with which we have to do. Most of the stu- 
dents come from the common people — which 
often means from the lower strata of society, for 
the mission is too small yet to furnish boys trained 
in the homes where reign the principles of the gos- 
pel. Too often we have no character foundation on 
which to build, and one can hardly be expected to 
make bricks without straw. Our most capable 
native minister, who has preached the gospel for 
thirty-five years, said to the principal that the in- 
stitution might be counted successful if one-third 
of the students who enrolled from year to year 
developed into men, morally strong, intelligent 
and useful. His estimate was doubtless over- 
drawn, but he is a man of the people, and 
thoroughly consecrated to the interests of Zion. 

Last year fifty students were enrolled in the 
school, coming from five different states of the 
Republic. Nine-tenths of these were boarders. 
$1333.28 was spent on the running expenses of 
the work, of which $856.00 was appropriated by 
the Board, $150 contributed by friends toward the 
salary of the assistant teacher, and the balance 
collected from the students. The purpose is to 
have all students pay for their board and tuition 
when they are able. The expense is placed at its 
minimum amount, $3.00 a month for board, and 
one dollar for tuition. Some pay one-half of the 

164 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

expenses, while many are too poor to do more 
than buy their clothes. For five years the work 
was carried on in rented buildings. The Synod 
which met at Mt. Zion, Mo., in 1904, directed the 
principal to canvass the churches to raise $5000 
for a building. On the leading thoroughfare of 
the town, half-way between the public square and 
the railroad station, stands the splendid structure 
capable of accommodating seventy-five boarders, 
with class rooms and auditorium and built on a lot 
donated by Rev. J. P. Erwin, of Rosemark, Tenn. 
To combat the potent forces for evil that 
threaten young manhood and to throw about 
them the formative influences that will make for 
their sure development into telling factors for 
righteousness, the school labors and prays. The 
Bible is the leading textbook and it is aimed to 
bring its teachings to bear on the practical every- 
day life of the student body. The assistant pro- 
fessor lives in the dormitory with the students and 
strives to introduce into the establishment the at- 
mosphere of a genuine Christian home. Morning 
and evening they gather about the altar of prayer, 
and at the opening of the classes all engage in de- 
votional exercises. Every student is compelled to 
attend all the religious exercises of the chapel. 
Besides their weekly prayer meetings and the 
gatherings on Sabbath afternoon to study the 
Bible, each year special evangelistic services are 
held for the student body. At the close of these 

i6 5 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

services last year only one of the entire student 
body was left out of the church of those who were 
old enough to take the responsible step. At this 
writing there are at least ten whose ages range in 
the neighborhood of twenty years who contem- 
plate the work of the gospel ministry. It is safe 
to forecast that the majority of these will prove 
worthy factors in the evangelization of their race. 
Two of these young men were employed in the 
work of the mission during their last vacation, 
holding services, one in Guerrero and the other in 
Cardenas. 

This year the first graduate goes out to preach 
the gospel. He was licensed by the Tampico 
Presbytery at its meeting last year. His record 
will inspire perhaps a firmer faith in the school. 
His history runs thus. One morning a man knock- 
ed at the door of the school. He was a peddler 
traveling over the state with his pack of goods. 
He had with him a lad of fourteen whom he had 
brought from a little town that lay beyond 
the mountains fully two hundred miles away. 
He asked that the boy be received as a charity 
student. He did not have even a change 
of clothes. The peddler had found the lad in 
Antiguo Morelos and had begged the mother 
to allow him to bring him to the school. 
He brought no recommendation, but there was 
nothing to do but take him in. To the boy all 
was new. He had come from a mountain town 

166 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

where the horizon is no higher than the low life 
of a mountain ranch and the feast days of the faith- 
ful Romanists. It was his first opportunity, and 
he began to awake to the glories and possibilities 
of life. He studied his books as men seek treas- 
ures. The Bible was all new to him. Its hidden 
treasures fascinated his soul. One year after he 
came, he gave his heart to his Lord and he began 
to catch the visions of the land of far distances. 
With eager spirit he grasped the opportunities of 
the school and grew both in intellectuality and 
in the graces that adorn the doctrines of our 
Savior. His life has been a practical sermon of 
righteousness preached each day before the stu- 
dents of the school. From time to time others 
have been sent away for the sins of lying, stealing 
and uncleanness, for they come from homes where 
the moral tide touches the lowest ebb, but he with 
his face set like a flint has fought the low, base 
ideals that lure young manhood and has developed 
into a new man. Soon he began to look out upon 
the white harvest fields, and slowly but firmly was 
forged the sublime purpose to carry the gospel to 
his people. He heard the call, and without shrink- 
ing he stepped forth with the readiness of the 
seraphic Isaiah, "Here am I. Send me." It was 
a work of God, who had used the humble school 
to take the unlettered lad of the mountain, blind 
to the spiritual heights to which the soul may 
reach, and moulded him into a vessel meet for the 

167 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Master's use. For the simple making of Enoc 
Butron, the labors of the school have not been in 
vain. We thank God and take courage that others 
are following hard in his footsteps. 

The Medical Work. 

Physician in Charge, Mrs. Katherine Neel Dale, M.D. 

"And Jesus went about all the cities and vil- 
lages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching 
the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sick- 
ness and every disease among the people." No 
less than twenty-three or two-thirds of His mir- 
acles were of healing. He made His preaching and 
healing go hand in hand. It was His own method, 
and it requires only the sanest exegesis of His 
words and life to see that the consecration of the 
healing art was a part of His master plan for all 
the ages, till all the world kingdoms crown Him 
Lord of all. He would have the physicians, with 
their medicine chest, go by the side of the heralds 
of the cross into the regions beyond. 

The missionary of His kingdom must be the 
truest successor of the good Samaritan, take 
the bleeding unfortunate left by the way and pour 
into his wounds the oil of healing and joy. Our 
Christianity is the highest type of philanthropy, 
and nowhere so well as on the mission field are 
offered such golden opportunities for the ministry 
of healing. Even in Mexico there is a wide-open 

168 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

door. To the southeast of us we can ride on horse- 
back three hundred miles and not find a single 
physician. The sick are left to the mercy of the 
old men and women doctors with their herbs. A 
prescription for the cure of fever, for example, is 
to place the patient out on a plank in the hot sun 
for hours, when the thermometer will register one 
hundred and two degrees. 

But medical missions finds its highest utility as 
a pioneer agency, a most effectual forerunner that 
opens the way for the preacher of the gospel. 
Gross ignorance, blind and deaf superstition, de- 
moniacal fanaticism, social caste and national pre- 
judice erect their barriers and say to the gospel 
herald, "thus far shalt thou come and no farther," 
while to the medical missionary these walls of di- 
vision vanish and the missionary physician can en- 
ter the homes and transform the fanaticism to 
friendships. Dr. Parker, for many years medical 
missionary to China, said, "I have no hesitation in 
expressing it as my solemn conviction that as yet 
no medium of contact and of bringing the people 
under the sound of the gospel and within the in- 
fluence of the means of grace, can compare with 
the facilities afforded by the medical missionary 
operations." Dr. A. Grant, with needle and lan- 
cet for the removal of the cataract from the eye, 
forced mountain passes through the wild Nestor- 
ian country, winning the hearts of the most fer- 
ocious tribes, and crossing districts hitherto un- 

169 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

trodden by the foot of civilized man. In spite of 
the repeated threats of the priests that they would 
condemn to the fires of purgatory all who should 
admit our medical missionary into their homes, 
her professional services have been sought, and 
fast friendships have been formed in families that 
were most doggedly fanatical. The medical work 
has been operated along two lines, by the hospital 
and by clinics. 

(i) The Dale Memorial Hospital. The building 
was donated by the Dale family, of Oak Hill, Ala- 
bama, in memory of William and Mary Dale, and 
was erected in 1906, costing $1500 U. S. currency. 
It is a structure of two stories, with six rooms for 
patients, a large waiting room, a private office for 
the physician and the drug store. During the 
past year 103 patients were received into the hos- 
pital. The entire expense was $928.62. Of this 
amount $128.62 was contributed by the patients, 
and the balance was appropriated by the Board of 
Foreign Missions. 

Most of the patients attend the services of the 
Rioverde church. These exercises, with the daily 
prayer meetings held in the building, and with the 
personal efforts of those in charge, are the means 
used to lead the patients to a personal faith in 
Christ. Repeated instances might be given of 
souls influenced and won for Christ. 

(2) The Clinics. This is the principal method of 
prosecuting the medical work. Six days of the 

170 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

week the office of the medical missionary is 
open to the public and on Sabbath urgent 
cases are received. During the forenoons no 
charity work is done. Regular charges are 
made, such as any physician would make. This 
is done for the reason that there are always some 
who are willing to pay for the actual worth of the 
medicines and professional services, and at the 
same time the amount thus collected enables the 
physician to meet the expenses of the work with- 
out any appropriation from the Board of Foreign 
Missions. In the afternoons the doors are opened 
to the poor who are charged only twenty-five cents 
for consultation and medicines. The very poor 
are charged nothing. 

During the past year 10,110 patients were treat- 
ed by the physician, with the aid of her trained 
nurse. More than ten thousand tracts were dis- 
tributed to the patients, and about one hundred 
Bibles sold. The receipts from consultations and 
sale of medicines amounted to $3309.14, and the 
current expenses $2961.50 (Mexican currency), 
leaving a balance of $347.64. Thus it will be seen 
that though the poor and all who come in the after- 
noons are charged only twenty-five cents, and 
though the best medicines available are used in 
the practice, the work meets all its expenses. The 
missionary draws no salary. Hence the medical 
work does not call for one dollar of help from the 
Board. 

*7* 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

The efforts of a single afternoon will serve to 
show how the opportunities may be turned to the 
account of the gospel. Early in the afternoon the 
poor and all those who wish to get the benefit of 
the reduction, gather in the large waiting room 
of the hospital. The room is generally full. Be- 
fore the physician begins prescribing, the mission- 
ary goes with the Bible and holds a short service, 
always aiming to explain clearly the way of sal- 
vation through Christ. It is an opportunity to be 
coveted. One there sows on virgin soil. Because 
of fanaticism or fear of the anathemas of the 
priests, ninety-nine hundredths of the hearers have 
never entered a gospel service. T« them it is a 
new story, that of the Son of God dying on the 
cross for our sins, and pardon full and free through 
His atoning sacrifice. The patients come from 
towns far and near. Almost any day we can count 
patients present from towns and ranches fifty 
miles distant. It is not uncommon for them to 
come seventy-five miles. Beyond doubt no other 
agency equals this in drawing the people and 
bringing them in contact with the gospel. Far- 
reaching fields are brought within reach of the 
gospel sower, permitting him to sow beside all 
waters. 

Occasionally it will happen that some of those 
present do not wish to hear the Bible read and 
explained and will cover their heads with their 
shawl. One afternoon a woman was seized with a 

172 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

violent toothache the moment the missionary en- 
tered and announced that he would read from the 
Word of God. She had not felt the toothache be- 
fore. The missionary having occasion to leave 
the room for a moment, the pain ceased and she 
was quiet. The moment the worker returned the 
pain also returned and with renewed force. She 
moaned so piteously that the voice of the preacher 
could scarcely be heard. But these cases are rare. 
Generally the people are attentive and love to hear 
the Bible read. As the patients pass into the of- 
fice of the physician, she improves every oppor- 
tunity to speak a word for the Savior. 

Medical missions becomes essentially a sower of 
the gospel seed by all waters, letting it fall where it 
may. Little opportunity is left to water and culti- 
vate. The patients come and go, some from far 
distant ranches and some never to return. The 
word of truth is spoken, the tracts and Bibles are 
carried to their distant mountain homes, and the 
missionary looks to the fulfilment of the sure word 
of prophecy that "as the rain cometh down, and 
the snow from heaven, and returneth not hither, 
but watereth the earth and maketh it to give seed 
to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my 
word be that goeth out of my mouth. It shall not 
return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that 
which I please/' 

However, the work is not without its results. 
Don Severiano came from a distant ranch 

173 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

for treatment. He sat in the waiting room as the 
missionary told the story of the love of God. The 
evangelical plan of salvation was new to him. He 
had never seen a Bible. The little gospel service 
was nothing less than fascinating to him. Seeing 
that he was intensely interested, the physician in- 
vited him to come back and hear more of the gos- 
pel. Two weeks later he returned. He knocked 
at the window of the missionary's study and said, 
"I have come for you to get me out of my ignor- 
ance. I want to know more of the gospel." For 
two hours the missionaries did their best to ex- 
plain to him the way of salvation through the Son 
of God. He could not read a word. He bought 
a large Bible and began to spell out the words one 
by one. Twice a month he came from the ranch 
to attend the chapel services on Sabbath. One of 
the students of the Preparatory school helped him 
in his efforts to learn to read. In three months he 
was reading the Bible. Out in the ranch, they say 
he would sit for hours reading his treasured book. 
Soon he saw that God hates impurity and he re- 
membered that he had never married the mother 
of his children, and she was the second of his so- 
called wives. He came with his true wife, was 
married by the civil authorities and asked to be 
received into the church. His life had been 
changed. His wife tells how that once he had 
been a hard drinker, but now he has quit the cup. 
Once he had been cruel and had often whipped 

J 74 




A GROUP OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THE STATE OF GUERRERO. 




DON SEVERIANO AND FAMILY, OF RIOVERDE, IN THEIR HOME. 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

her, but now he is kind to her. Old things have 
passed away and all things have become new. 

The medical missionary accompanied Rev. J. S. 
A. Hunter to San Antonio, where a preaching ser- 
vice was held. A school teacher of the village was 
sick and wished the physician to prescribe for him. 
This she did only for those who attended the ser- 
vice, if able. The sick man came. His wife hid 
behind the house and looked between the cane 
walls to see his eyes leap from their sockets, for 
she had been told by the Catholics that such would 
be the fate of all who should dare attend tke meet- 
ing for prayer and the study of the Bible. The 
husband had run the risk to get the wonderful 
medicine of the foreigner. Nothing happened, ex- 
cept the man became interested in the gospel, and, 
to make a long story short, he was soon baptized 
in the faith of Jesus Christ. And at laot, she, too, 
was led to the feet of the Savior. 

While the medical missionary lived in Ciudad del 
Maiz, Dona Pancha came one day for medicine. 
She had never dared to enter a Protestant's home, 
for she had been told that they were devils with 
great horns. But now, for the sake of the medi- 
cine, she braved the danger. There she heard the 
gospel. It appealed to her and she began to at- 
tend the church services through the back door of 
the church that her friends might not see her. She 
was won for Christ, and then her husband and his 
brother, and then his wife. For years this convert 

x 75 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

has had charge of the kitchen of the Preparatory 
and Theological school, and has served her Master 
most faithfully. Instances might be multiplied. 
These are sufficient to illustrate that Medical Mis- 
sions are a veritable handmaid of the gospel, and 
deserve a place among the foremost and most 
potent agencies that work and wait for the saving 
of the nations. 

The Orphanage. 

Founder, Mrs. Amelia B. Edwards. 

Very soon after her arrival in Rioverde, the con- 
dition of the orphan children touched the heart of 
Mrs. Edwards, and she resolved to do what she 
could to alleviate the misery of their lot. By rea- 
son of the great poverty of the lower classes, the 
condition of the fatherless and motherless is most 
distressing. The lack of home surroundings, and 
very specially the fact that they had no moral train- 
ing, led Mrs. Edwards to open the little orphan- 
age, December, 1897. For the greater part of the 
time the work was carried on in the home of the 
missionary. Off to one side of the yard were fitted 
up several rooms, which the little girls occupied. 
There being no matron to take charge of the chil- 
dren and look after their interests, the missionary 
was compelled to have them directly under her 
personal care. The first orphan received was For- 
tunata Hernandez. Very soon the number in- 
creased to five, and at times there were as many as 

176 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

twelve in the home. The children were sustained 
by voluntary contributions made by the home 
church. The superintendent kept the people in- 
formed as to the needs of the institution. Many 
of the congregations of the home church turned 
into this worthy channel their contributions made 
on Thanksgiving days. Thus all the needs of the 
orphans were met, due to the energetic efforts of 
the superintendent, and her constant prayer for 
them. Their welfare, temporal and spiritual, was 
the burden that lay upon her heart. For them she 
labored and prayed. Rev. J. P. Erwin, of Rose- 
mark, Tenn., moved by the appeals for the chil- 
dren, donated the funds sufficient with which to 
purchase a lot for a building. Very soon Mr. E. 
B. Chester, of Tennessee, contributed $1600, with 
which to erect the needed home. God was caring 
for the fatherless, according to His promise. The 
children moved into* their home in 1903. It is a 
substantial building of two stories and has been a 
blessing to the children. 

In 1907 it was deemed best to combine the orph- 
anage with the boarding school then operated by 
Miss Lavinia Neel. This was done both on ac- 
count of the need of a capable person to live in the 
building with the orphans, which Mrs. Edwards 
could not do, and also to place the two institutions 
on a more economical basis, which could be done 
by combining them under one management. Three 
of the orphans have graduated from the Presby- 

177 

M-12 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

terian Normal School of Saltillo, and are engaged 
in teaching. One of these is Senorita Fortunata 
Hernandez, assistant teacher of the Hattie May 
Chester Institute. Thoroughly capable, conscien- 
tious in all her efforts, she labors faithfully for the 
youth of her race. The efforts of the faithful 
founder have borne fruitage to the glory of the 
Master. 

Literature. 
i. Our Official Organ, "La Fe Cristiana." 

Very keenly had been felt the need of a periodi- 
cal to circulate among the converts of the mission. 
With no desire to ferment the spirit of denomina- 
tionalism, the paper formed the lofty aim of striv- 
ing to bring the different fields of the mission into 
closer touch, deepen their interest in our own de- 
nominational activities, and at the same time offer 
them good, sane, evangelical reading matter. Be- 
sides contributing toward the efforts to build up 
our converts in the rudiments of our most holy 
faith, something might be done to transmit the 
good news of salvation to those beyond the pales 
of the church. 

Early in 1908, a friend of North Carolina, do- 
nated a press and type for the enterprise. With the 
full approval of the Board of Foreign Missions, 
"La Fe Cristiana" sent out its first issue August 
8, 1908, having two departments, one in Spanish 
and one in English, edited by Rev. J. G. Dale. 
The English department was meant for the home 

178 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

church. It was felt that through its columns a 
deeper interest might be quickened among the 
congregations of the homeland and the churches 
be stirred to hold more faithfully the ropes of mis- 
sionary obligation to the Regions Beyond. 

At the close of the first year, the English de- 
partment was issued separately, being sent out 
monthly, under the title "Our Mexican Mission." 
"La Fe Cristiana" was changed to a semi-monthly. 
The former goes into nearly all the congregations 
of the Synod, and it is firmly believed that much 
is done to promote a livelier zeal for missions. The 
latter has subscribers in all our congregations and 
from testimonies received, the paper is making 
rapid strides toward the attainment of its high end, 
that of becoming an efficient medium of evangeli- 
zation. No appropriation of funds has ever been 
received from the Board of Foreign Missions. 
With the help of a few friends, it has been self- 
supporting. Through its agency, thousands and 
thousands of tracts have been printed and scattered 
over the field. 

On the mission field the power of the religious 
press is unique in that the silent messenger travels 
far into the mountain towns and ranches where 
the voice of the missionary is never heard. To the 
humble villages it preaches Christ and Him cruci- 
fied. The following bit of history, which is being 
repeated over and over again, is eloquent in praise 
of the printed page as it travels into the inaccess- 

179 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

ible regions, far removed from the centers of light. 
Two years ago a letter reached the principal of the 
Preparatory and Theological school from a man 
who lived in the state of Vera Cruz, two hundred 
miles away and out of reach of the missionaries. 
He had never attended an evangelical service. No 
missionary had gone to his little ranch to point 
him to the Lamb of God, who could take his sin 
away. Years ago he received in some way a copy 
of "El Abogado Cristiano," the organ of the 
Methodist Church. He subscribed for the paper 
and read it with the zeal of a man who was awak- 
ening from long slumber to find himself possessor 
of great treasures. Its weekly visits, with its col- 
umns of gospel truth, was like cold water to his 
thirsty soul. Back in the mountain, where to be 
able to read is a marked attainment, he studied 
and followed on to know the Lord. He was feel- 
ing after God, if haply he might find Him, and 
the Bible appealed to him as the whole truth, the 
infallible guide. In his tailor shop he daily talked 
the new truths he had learned. Finally he saw a 
notice of our school where poor boys are given an 
opportunity to learn and work for the Master. 
Though nearing thirty years, he wrote asking to 
be received, saying that he was willing to do any 
kind of manual labor for his board. He wanted 
light. He was seeking Jesus. He came, and in a 
few weeks was received into the church. His life 
has been a benediction to the school. Loved and 

180 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

respected by all, he takes under his care the 
younger boys and looks after the details of the 
management of the establishment, thus taking 
from the shoulders of the principal a thousand lit- 
tle burdens. Gifted with an ordinary mental 
capacity and an increasing steadfastness linked 
with a genuine spirituality, he is making rapid pro- 
gress and promises to be able in a few years to 
take charge of a congregation. And to judge by 
these two years, when the fruit has made sure that 
the tree is good, his career may not flash with 
brilliancy, but Felipe Bautista will render the Mas- 
ter a service of a most lasting, substantial charac- 
ter. It was a periodical that first opened his eyes 
to the light. All honor to these quiet little mes- 
sengers that enter homes beyond the reach of any 
other evangelical influence and lead souls into the 
clear light of the Sun of Righteousness. 

2. COLPORTAGE WORK. 

The American Bible Society, with its headquar- 
ters in Mexico City, has its colporteurs stationed 
in different sections of the Republic. From the 
central towns they go over the districts selling the 
Bibles and scattering gospel tracts. Noble heroes 
are these. Traveling most often on foot, with their 
books packed on a donkey, they invade the hot 
malarial lowlands of the tropics as well as the chilly 
regions of the table lands. Jeered at and not sel- 
dom driven away from ranches, sleeping often by 

181 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

the roadside and faring on cold corn bread, they 
will surely hear the blessed well done of the faith- 
ful servant and enter into the eternal joy of their 
Lord. 

With our other evangelical forces these co-oper- 
ate without a jar. While only men of known spir- 
itual qualifications are employed, they are strictly 
forbidden to talk denominationalism on their trips. 
They must talk Jesus and the way of salvation 
through Him. They canvass our fields, leaving 
thousands of Bibles in the homes and always 
speaking a good word for missionaries and their 
work. And thus they become fellow helpers to 
the truth. 

Every missionary considers colportage work as 
included in his commission to teach the nations. 
He keeps on hand a stock of Bibles and testa- 
ments, a part of which he carries with him on his 
itinerating trips from ranch to ranch. And so the 
Bibles are scattered over the field and the gospel 
truth works its way into districts miles and miles 
from the limits of congregational activities. And 
quietly, but slowly and effectually, His word is 
accomplishing that which He pleases. An ex- 
ample, one of many, will suffice. 

Returning from a long trip on horseback, Rev. 
J. S. A. Hunter passed Los Charcos del Oriente. 
He carried, as he always did, his bundle of Bibles. 
As it was not safe to travel alone, he carried a 
guide to whom he gave a Bible before they parted. 

182 



OUR MISSIONARY AGENCIES. 

The aspirations of the guide never reached beyond 
the intoxicating cup, and he left the Bible in the 
home where they passed the night. The owner of 
the house found the book and began to read. It 
was like a voice from heaven. He pored over its 
pages day after day. His less serious brother 
laughed at him for reading the book with such 
zest, but like the weeping prophet, he had found 
the word, he was feeding on it and it had become 
the joy and rejoicing of his heart. He was a con- 
sumptive and soon passed into the great beyond, 
but his death was so triumphant, so peaceful, that 
his brother felt that there must have been some- 
thing in the book that could have given the depart- 
ing soul such buoyant hope, and so he, too, began 
to read. The message took hold of his heart, and 
he, too, found the same joy. He lost his faith in 
the images and pictures that had been his gods. 
"Thus saith the Lord" became the royal rule of his 
life. A storm of persecution broke upon his head, 
but he did not draw back from the cross. Hear- 
ing of the Protestants of Ciudad del Maiz, he went 
asking them to lead him farther into the light. 
Like thousands of his countrymen, he had reared 
a family but had never married. All such wrongs, 
he at once righted, and was baptized. Returning 
to his ranch, he strove to be a torch of light set on 
a hill to cast its rays into the dense darkness, and 
bore faithful witness for his Lord. One of his con- 
verts was Dn. Pampilo, of precious memory, who 

183 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

died two years ago, leaving his little fortune of 
$500 to the work of the gospel. And others learn- 
ed to believe on Christ through him. What a 
work of grace brought to pass from the Bible left 
in the ranch by the missionary ! Only at the great 
reckoning day will it be known what a mighty 
host have found Him, the Desired of the nations, 
off in lone ranches with no Philip to guide, but like 
this simple Indian, looking beyond his gods of 
wood and paper, and led by the Spirit and the 
Word, have seen Jesus, and saved by that look, 
have pillowed their dying head on the precious 
promise and have gone home to their newly-found 
Savior and Father — God. 



184 



CHAPTER X. 



DIFFICULTIES. 



Falsehood dies hard. For every inch of vantage 
ground, truth has to battle, even unto blood. From 
the Red Sea to the Holy City, the chosen hosts 
of God had to war. The history of redemption re- 
peats itself. Missions that would enthrone Christ 
Jesus as King, have to grapple with difficulties 
more defiant than the swollen stream of the Jor- 
dan or the Jericho walls stretching heavenward to 
dispute the passage of Israel. These are obstacles 
well-nigh insurmountable, and woe unto the faint- 
hearted. Passing by the most serious difficulty, 
the indifference of the home church, let us mar- 
shall out into the clear light, the difficulties that 
beset the onward progress of the gospel on our 
field. 

i. The Fanaticism of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Rome in Mexico hates the evangelical faith pre- 
cisely as she did in Europe centuries ago, when, 
with fire and fagot, she did her best to burn to 
ashes all who loved Jesus, their pardoning Lord. 
In both lands the inquisitional fires burned and 
burned till the strong arm of law compelled them 
to let men worship God as their consciences dic- 
tated. Rev. H. W. Brown quotes in Latin 
America a Catholic who freely confesses that un- 

185 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

der necessity the Catholics "would tolerate the 
Protestant, and if expedient he would imprison 
you, fine you and possibly hang you. But one 
thing sure, he would never tolerate you for the 
sake of the glorious principles of civil and religious 
liberty." That is the spirit that is abroad in the 
land where we labor. Although the Reform Laws 
protect us, still the smouldering hatred erects high 
walls of opposition that separate the missionaries 
from the masses. It is an enmity far more bitter 
than the hatred of the homeland toward the Mor- 
mons, traveling over the country winning converts 
to the faith of John Smith. It is rather the abhor- 
rence of the reader toward a literal demon who 
should come up from the pit assuming the form 
and features that exactly represent his inner spirit, 
an incarnation of the old-time pictures of Satan 
with horns and hoofs. This is not the attitude of 
all, but the opinion of the faithful Mexican Cath- 
olics. To use their own phrase, "Protestant mis- 
sionaries are devils." 

It is a common thing to see those whom we 
meet on the street, make crosses on their foreheads 
or mumble a prayer to their favorite saint to save 
them from the defiling contagion of the Protestant 
devil. Last year Sr. Cejudo went to San Ciro to 
sell Bibles, under the direction of the American 
Bible Society. He found lodging in the "meson" 
or hotel. The first day it was noised abroad that 
he was a Protestant. The startling news reached 

186 



DIFFICULTIES. 

the landlady of the hotel after dark. She went to 
the room and told the colporteur bruskly that he 
had to leave at once for she would not shelter a 
Protestant. He had to leave at the dead of night. 
She would hardly have driven out a poor dog at 
that hour, knowing that he was a stranger in a 
strange town. The next day she scoured with 
soap and water the room where the unclean Prot- 
estant had been. 

About that time the missionary of Rioverde was 
trying to rent a house in San Ciro in which to open 
gospel work. The parish priest gathered his faith- 
ful followers and harangued them as to the infernal 
character of these hated devils that were coming 
to town. He assured them that the blinding, 
withering curse of God would fall on all who would 
befriend them. They were not to even look to- 
wards them. The town awoke one morning to 
find on the public square a large tent put up by a 
lottery company to ply its trade on the coming 
Sabbath. An old lady had started out to buy corn 
and beans for dinner. She saw the tent and was 
sure that the Protestants had arrived. She recall- 
ed the exhortation of the holy father (?) not to 
look at the Protestants and ran home as fast as she 
could. She asked the neighbors what she was to 
do, for now she could not go to market because 
her eyes were sure to fall on the Protestants and 
she would be accursed. Patients have come to our 
gate and begged the physician to come out and 

187 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

prescribe for them. They were afraid to enter the 
house lest some great evil should befall them. 

A water-carrier who sells water through the 
streets began to attend the evangelical services. 
His former companions jeered at him and cursed 
him for associating with the "hated devils." Many 
of the homes promptly advised him that they 
would no longer buy his water. He had rented a 
small tract of land where he planted corn. The 
owner advised him that he could no longer hold 
his land. The moment that he showed his liking 
for the gospel, the billows of persecution swept 
down upon him. It is not difficult to understand 
how this stubborn fanaticism stands like a mighty 
breakwater against the gospel tide of salvation. 
Many are convinced, so they tell us, that the gos- 
pel is the true way of life, but they go away sorrow- 
ful, for they are not ready to meet the shot and 
shell of ridicule and ostracism that are sure to pour 
their volleys into the breasts of the persecuted. On 
the Congo multitudes flock to the heralds of the 
cross, and in Korea they fill the chapels to over- 
flowing, but with us, Mexican fanaticism has raised 
high barriers, and the crowds stand aloof as if we 
were lepers or mad dogs. What Adoniron Judson 
wrote long ago of Burmah, is every whit true of 
Mexico, "When any person is known to be consid- 
ering the new religion, all his relations rise up en 
masse, so that to get a new convert is like pulling 
out the eye-tooth of a tiger." Uhlhorn wrote of 

188 



DIFFICULTIES. 

the early church, "Whoever became a Christian 
was compelled to renounce not only immemorial 
prejudices, but usually also father and mother and 
brothers and sisters, friends and relatives and em- 
ployment." Our converts have to pass through 
identical experiences and they are tests before 
which many shrink back unto the eternal loss of 
salvation. 

2. Social Caste. 

During the Spanish domination of three hun- 
dred years, the whole land became nominally Cath- 
olic. When the gospel entered forty years ago, it 
spread most rapidly among the poor, as it did in 
the days of Paul, and as it has always done. Of 
primitive Christianity, Gibbon sneered "that the 
adherents were almost entirely composed of the 
dregs of the population, of peasants, mechanics, of 
boys and women, of beggars and slaves/' His 
sarcastic fling was Christianity's glory. To mould 
saints of the type of those of the first century, and 
out of such material, is abundant proof that the 
movement was of God. It is so with us. There 
are not a few from the upper ranks of society, but 
Protestantism is principally the religion of the 
poor. Nor are we ashamed of the charge. We 
are willing to place our converts alongside those 
of any mission field, as examples of what the grace 
of God can do for prodigals that have strayed far 
from the Father's house. 

189 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

For the higher classes to heed the gospel call 
and sit down with the poor, is to break caste and 
make well nigh the identical sacrifice of the Hindu, 
who turns his back on Buddha and follows the 
lowly Nazarene. And many, like the young noble- 
man, are not willing to be reckoned as the off- 
scouring of the world for His sake. Often have 
friends said that they were fully convinced that 
the truth was on our side, but to accept and follow 
would be to invite social ostracism, for which they 
were not ready. 

3. Sabbath Desecration. 

Mexico has no Sabbath. On the Lord's day 
trade is best. The public square of any town is 
alive with buyers and sellers. From all the sur- 
rounding country the merchants come with their 
merchandise for sale, and the people with their 
spare money to buy. The stores add to their ordi- 
nary force of clerks. Pre-eminently it is market 
day. Most generally in front of the Catholic 
church is found the market place. The pious 
Romanists attend mass, where they mumble pray- 
ers to some favorite saint, and on their way home 
buy provisions for the week. To attend mass in 
the forenoon, a bullfight in the afternoon and a 
gay ball at night is the very common program for 
the Sabbath. If the carpenter or farmer is behind 
with his work, the former opens his shop and 
works all day, and the latter carries his oxen to 

190 



DIFFICULTIES. 

the field and spends the day following his plow up 
and down the furrows. It is man's day and not 
God's. 

To all this the gospel runs counter and calls 
the Sabbathless land to rest, prayer and worship. 
And to wean the people from these practices, 
woven into the very warp and woof of the social 
fabric, lead them to endure the severe losses and 
self-denial that the observance entails, is nothing 
less than a Herculean task. And yet, before the 
applicant for baptism receives the sacred rite, he 
must vow to take up the cross of Sabbath observ- 
ance and follow Jesus. 

With the converts too, this is a burning ques- 
tion. Sabbath being sale day, articles of merchan- 
dise are cheapest then, and it often happens that 
certain things cannot be bought on any other day. 
Hence the constant temptation to avaihthemselves 
of the low prices of the Sabbath. Their poverty 
makes the test all the more severe. Many of those 
engaging laborers will not pay off their employees 
till the Sabbath, and all reserve the right to call on 
them to continue their work through the Sabbath, 
if they choose. Amid such conditions, where the 
tide is against all respect for the holy day of rest 
and where the poor toiling for their daily bread, 
and with families dependent on their earnings, find 
every inducement to trample under foot the divine 
requirement, it becomes for the Protestant Church 
one of the gravest problems on the field. How 

191 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

shall we bring the Catholic Church, that so over- 
whelmingly outnumbers us, to the high gospel 
standard of honoring and sanctifying the Sabbath? 
How shall we get our converts to keep clear and 
distinct the lines of separation between the Church 
and the world, that is utterly Sabbathless? These 
and kindred questions call for long seasons of 
prayer, and throw the worker back on the re- 
sources of divine power and wisdom. Of all the 
matters that come up for discussion on the floors 
of Presbytery, none are so frequently heard as 
this ever-living, burning question of Sabbath keep- 
ing. Though the Ten Commandments thundered 
from Sinai are preached from the pulpits, though 
every opportunity is seized to urge obedience to 
this command as a sine qua non of our religion 
and though the pastors maintain the strictest dis- 
cipline, it is no easy task to keep the standard high 
for the current is all against us. 

4. The Anti-American Spirit. 
The President of Mexico and those associated 
with him in the administration of the affairs of 
the nation, are sincere friends of the United States. 
Of this they have given most unmistakable proof. 
And the more thoughtful element of the country 
are kindly disposed toward the American immi- 
grants. They recognize that their northern neigh- 
bors, coming to make their home in Mexico, con- 
tribute to the development of the land, materially, 
intellectually and morally. 

192 



DIFFICULTIES. 

But in the minds of a great many, lurks the feel- 
ing that the presence of the American bodes no 
good for the country. They have not forgotten 
the long slice of territory that they lost in the war 
of the forties. From their standpoint it was an 
instance when might made right and the sober 
sense of justice had no voice. Not a few historians 
indoctrinate into the minds of the people that the 
nation was treated most unjustly and memory lin- 
gers over the loss as the Americans throng the 
land. Demagogues fan to a flame this spirit, tell- 
ing the unthinking that the American missionaries 
are spies, forerunners of a second invasion from 
the North, when all Mexico will be annexed to the 
United States. Behind the Monroe Doctrine they 
think they can see a cunningly devised scheme to 
enlarge the Republic of the stars and the stripes. 
The "Diario del Hogar," an influential paper of 
Mexico City, in view of the recent disturbances in 
Central America, calls upon the Republics of Latin 
America to unite against the "Yankee Oppressor." 
"In the presence of this powerful and open threat 
of oppression, we must forget our differences and 
unite for the welfare of Latin America, for the 
weal of our respective countries, and to protect 
our independence. The eagle on the White House 
is sharpening its claws ready to prey upon our 
liberties. The Yankee Napoleon is already dis- 
posing of our future and forgetting that St. Helena 
is near." And the priest, ever ready to slander 

193 

M-13 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

the evangelical missionary, remembers how his- 
tory has called the Catholics traitors to the coun- 
try when they allied themselves with the Spaniards 
who fought the liberalists struggling for freedom, 
and now seeks to turn the tables and persuade the 
people that the Protestant missionary is traitor, 
for he labors on a secret mission to effect the 
overthrow of the Mexican government. This 
works havoc to missions. The Mexican is intense- 
ly patriotic and to be told that he follows a mis- 
sionary whose schemes are set to undermine his 
government, tries his faith, or at least makes him 
less favorably disposed toward the gospel workers. 
From this race i prejudice has sprung up an 
ecclesiastical organization known as the Indepen- 
dent Church. It opposes all that is American and 
wages bloody war on the different denominations 
of the country. Professedly the opposition finds 
justification in the division of the Evangelical 
Church into so many branches that the Independ- 
ents feel called upon by the Providence of God to 
introduce another distinct creed so broad and lib- 
eral that any and all denominations may come un- 
der its ecclesiastical wing. It requires no astute- 
ness to see that the motive of the movement is the 
deep dislike towards the American missionary in 
the evangelization of the country. They insist 
that the Mexican is capable of carrying forward 
to complete consummation the task, and urge the 
people not to receive one dollar from the Boards. 

J ?4 



DIFFICULTIES. 

Through its official organ, "Mexico Evangelico," 
it pours its venom upon the foreign missionary 
who is an intruder and is not wanted in Mexico. 
Playing the role of feigned patriotism, it has stirred 
some to rally under the Independent banner. And 
while the movement is surely destined to come to 
naught, still it deceives some and disturbs the quiet 
harmony that should reign in the missionary cam- 
paign. In Tampico they have made trouble for 
Dr. Pressly, resulting in the withdrawal of two or 
three members. No separate organization was ef- 
fected. They simply stand aside and find fault with 
all that is done. In Cardenas too, they have 
sowed tares, baptizing three persons, some of 
whose matrimonial relations were notoriously il- 
licit. To them that mattered little. A year has 
passed and the "disturber in Israel" has never re- 
turned to his flock of three. 

5. The Presence of the American Population. 

The influx of Americans into the country has 
been enormous. Fully 50,000 are scattered over 
the country. Capitalists have come, investing 
$800,000,000. As a rule, these have set their heart 
on gold and silver mines, rubber plantations, 
orange groves, bales of henequen, grazing lands 
for cattle, and to reach their goal, they seem will- 
ing to trample under foot all those high virtues of 
America's best manhood. Many have come seek- 
ing an asylum from the law that followed close 
upon their heels to bring them to justice for some 

195 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

crime committed in the States. A very army of 
railroad men pour into the country. These have 
little to recommend Christianity in the States and 
less in Mexico. Thousands lead lives of moral 
shame and follow tricks of trade that would bring 
the blush of shame to the cheek of every true 
American. Trainloads of tourists scour the coun- 
try, taking the Sabbath for special excursions, at- 
tending the bullfights, cockfights and making no 
more impression for Christianity than if they were 
direct from Paris, whose god is the world. The 
damage done missions is all the more deadly from 
the fact that the Catholics look upon all Americans 
as Protestants, and the priests take advantage of 
the situation to say to the fanatical, "This is a sam- 
ple of what the United States, with its boasted ev- 
angelical religion, can do for men." The fore- 
going accusation may seem severe, but the facts 
justify the conclusion. Exceptions are to be found 
here and there, but these only make the general 
rule stand out in bolder outline. 

6. The Liberal Spirit. 
Liberalism is abroad in the land, and the blame 
lies at the door of the Roman Catholic Church. 
With dogged obstinacy, Rome has fought the lib- 
eral party, whose purpose has been liberty and 
enlightenment. "In every foreign war which Mex- 
ico has had, namely with Spain in 1829, with 
France in 1838, with the United States in 1846, 
and again with France in 1862, the clergy were 

196 



DIFFICULTIES. 

against their own government."* This, with the 
moral corruption of the priesthood, and the recog- 
nized avidity of the Church to grasp at all hazards 
and at all seasons every opportunity to fill its cof- 
fers with gold, have uprooted the faith of many, 
specially men, and set them adrift on the high seas 
of infidelity and liberalism, without chart or com- 
pass. Having lost confidence in one religion, they 
have no faith in any creed. With frigid indiffer- 
ence they look on all efforts to lead men to the 
feet of God. They may go to mass once in a while, 
but it is only to accompany their wives or their 
daughters. Most of them spend the Sabbath pay- 
ing off their employees or in their offices and 
stores. 

Of all classes, this is the most hopeless. Even 
the most fanatical are to be preferred before the 
liberal type. The former do worship idols, but 
that indicates that they have a thirst for God and 
are feeling after Him if haply they may find Him, 
and when once convicted of the error of their way, 
that quest for God inspires them to follow on to 
know the Lord, while the latter is dead to all re- 
ligious sentiment, the most discouraging class for 
the gospel missionary. 

7. The High Standards of the Gospel. 

Wu Ting Fang, that astute Chinaman who visit- 
ed America not long ago, asserted that the ideal 
of Christianity was too high, that therein lay the 

•Mexico Coming into the Light, J. W. Butler, page 67. 

197 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

prime fault of the Christian faith, the radical dif- 
ference between it and Confucianism. He might 
have added in all truth that it constituted the es- 
sential difference between Christianity and all 
other religions. Our faith holds humanity to a 
divine standard. All lies, all uncleanness, all social 
deceit, all evil thinking, all double dealing, all ille- 
gitimate social relations, all Sabbath breaking and 
every other infringement of the divine law are un- 
flinchingly placed under the ban. Among Mexi- 
can Catholics the gospel conditions are thought 
too stringent and many turn away. Rome has 
her man-made system of pardon so nicely adjusted 
to the human wish that the devotee can take little 
or no account of the fundamental principles of 
right and wrong behind the counter, on the farm 
or in the home. He may deal in all manner of 
social deceit, spend his Sabbath in the bull ring, in 
the cock pit or in the ball room, pass days on 
drunken sprees or nights in gambling dens, and 
yet have his spiritual account straightened up once 
a year to return over the same ways of sin. To 
such the gospel condition seems hard when it de- 
mands that they break with all sin, great and 
small, repent of their iniquity and turn to God, 
who searches the heart and face a future, with no 
thought of going back to the mire of former sins. 
The Romish devotee looks upon religion as a set 
of rules to be kept, a pious mumbling of prayers to 
an idol, giving alms to the poor, occasional trips 

198 



DIFFICULTIES. 

over long distances to worship some wonderwork- 
ing image, stated confession to the priests; and he 
finds the simple faith in God and implicit obedience 
to Him through Jesus Christ by the sole help of the 
Holy Spirit, a most unwelcome task. His is a relig- 
ion of externalities that fails to touch the heart, the 
springs of life; and when the evangelical worker 
insists on a pure heart, simple faith in the dead but 
risen and glorified Savior, whole-hearted loyalty 
to Him and Him alone, clear-cut abandonment of 
all known sin, a life of Bible study and prayer, he 
confesses that the demands are too searching, and 
returns to his fold. It is easier to crawl a mile on 
one's knees to pay a vow to> an image, than to keep 
the heart clean and undefiled. It is an hundred- 
fold easier to bruise the body till covered with 
blood, than to keep the soul's trust firm and un- 
wavering in the blood of the Lamb of God, which 
alone can take away the guilt of sin. 

A prominent citizen of Ciudad Fernandez at- 
tended the services. He felt the drawings of the 
Spirit. His spiritual desires were awakened. But 
he soon saw that the gospel called for a clean life. 
No longer could he take his morning dram, which 
had been as regular as his cup of coffee. He could 
no longer pass intoxicating drinks across the 
counter of his store. The doors of his store would 
have to be closed on Sabbath. With admirable 
frankness he confessed that the conditions of dis- 

199 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

cipleship were too rigid, he must give up too 
much and he went back to walk no more with us. 

Nearly all the heads of families received into the 
Church have first of all to go before the civil au- 
thorities and be legally joined in matrimony. For 
years the father and mother have been rearing 
families under the most illicit conditions, and the 
missionary must see that the moral crookedness 
is made straight before they can receive the rite 
of baptism. For this sad state of things the gov- 
ernment does not bear the blame. While no 
ecclesiastical ceremony is recognized as legally 
binding, the government offers to perform the civil 
ceremony free of charge. And to encourage par- 
ents to enter the civil contract, all children are re- 
quired to be registered eight days after birth, 
which can only be done when the father and 
mother are legally married, and if the child is not 
registered it can claim no part of the inheritance 
before the law. At this point the Roman Catholic 
Church steps in and assures the citizen of the 
Republic that the civil contract is useless, be- 
fore God it is not binding, and that only the priest 
can unite them in true wedlock. For his services 
the charges of the priest are such that often the 
poor are not able to pay them. And so the two 
live together unmarried. 

It often happens that one of the two comes un- 
der the power of the gospel. To be baptized they 
must comply with the civil requirement or separ- 

200 



DIFFICULTIES. 

ate. Not unfrequently the woman is inferior to 
the man, who looks upon her rather as his servant, 
and so is not willing to make his life one with 
hers, and yet for the sake of the children he is not 
ready to separate. For other reasons, it some- 
times happens that they are not willing to marry 
and not ready to part. There falls across their 
way an Alpine barrier over which to climb to reach 
the kingdom of heaven. Where this difficulty is 
removed and they are married and baptized, the 
long years of illicit relations have seared the con- 
science, and long stages of spiritual training are 
needed to bring them up to the gospel standard 
of a conscience void of offence. 

8. Superstition. 

This works mischief to the unlettered as the 
fear of social ostracism does to the educated. 
Among the lower classes superstition is rife. To 
hang about the neck tiny images renders them im- 
mune to all evil spirits. A tiny Christ on the cross 
is placed in the mouth of the dying soul which 
helps it to pass safely through the gates of glory. 
On the way to* the graveyard are discharged fire 
crackers to frighten away the evil spirits that oth- 
erwise would torment the soul on its way into the 
other world. On the night of the first day of No- 
vember food is prepared for the dead, who return 
to visit the scenes of their earthly pilgrimage. 
Dainty dishes are prepared and placed on the 

20 1 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

piazza or in a special room, where the departed 
may have access to them. Our washwoman lost 
her husband years ago from the blasting curse of 
drink. On the night of All Saints day we passed 
her home and could see through the cane walls on 
a little altar a bottle of whiskey. These beliefs, 
current among the common people, are not one 
whit less superstitious than those of the Buddhist 
who feeds his gods. One night, so the children 
tell of the mother, she had prepared a choice meal 
for the deceased father. All were in bed when a 
noise was heard in the adjoining room as if some- 
one was eating. "Listen children/' she said, "do 
you not hear your father eating." They found 
that it was a hungry dog prowling about the 
premises. 

The tenth of January is the red letter day for 
the animals. "Antonio" is their patron saint. About 
the year two hundred and fifty he retired to a 
cave to hide from temptation. Satan determined 
not to leave him to his holy meditations. He 
sent thronging evil spirits in the form of fiercest 
animals. These expected that the pious monk 
would come out and curse them for their insolence. 
Rather he blessed them, so the Catholic version 
runs. Thus it is that each year the people carry 
their animals to the parish priest for him to 
sprinkle holy water upon them and bless them. 
Pigs, turkeys, goats, chickens, donkeys, etc., etc., 
are carried to the church. With the blessing of 

202 



DIFFICULTIES. 

the priest, the hog will yield more meat, the sheep 
will give finer wool, the cows will give richer milk, 
the horses will run faster on the race course, the 
canary will sing more sweetly, and the cock will 
prove a better fighter in the games. It is a rare 
sight as the pious lead their animals away from 
the church. Some are painted for the occasion, 
while others are festooned with colored paper and 
flying ribbons. 

Last August a terrific storm swept down upon 
Zapotlan. A humble shepherd was passing the 
hill when he saw the blinding lightning rend in 
twain a great rock that lay on the side of the 
mountain. And on the face of the rent rock the 
virgin left the photograph of her face. He ran to 
tell the village priest, who, with the crowds of the 
faithful, went out to see, and sure enough it was 
true (?). The priest said that he could see the im- 
print of the face of Mary, and all shouted "Amen." 
The picture was called the Divine Lady of Zapot- 
lan, and became a Mecca for the devoted of that 
section. It is but one of the hundreds of appear- 
ances of the virgin in the Republic. 

Such superstition abounding everywhere, affords 
a most fruitful soil in which the Roman Catholic 
Church can sow the follies of her creed, instill in 
the minds of the people the most absurd and un- 
just beliefs as to the character of the Protestants, 
and make it exceedingly difficult for the simple, 
sane teaching of the gospel to take root in their 

203 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

hearts. And even after our members have been 
converted from these follies, the superstitious ideas 
still cling to them and tend to choke the good 
seed of truth. Less than a fortnight ago, a man 
who loves the Lord with all his heart, came to ask 
if the story he had just heard was true. Pilgrims 
had brought the news from one of the shrines 
where they had gone to worship a famous image, 
that they had seen the face of Jesus Christ on a 
brick near the shrine, and the priest had affirmed 
that it was the very true face of Christ. Patiently 
and persistently the missionary had to show him 
the folly of these things, that a "thus saith the 
Lord" is to be the touchstone of what we believe, 
and not a "thus saith the priest." 

These and other difficulties stand in the way of 
the progress of the gospel, but shall they be a sig- 
nal for retreat? That was far from the spirit of 
Paul. "I will tarry at Ephesus, for there is a great 
and effectual door opened unto me, and there are 
many adversaries." The presence of the enemy 
was an invitation to stay on the field and fight it 
out. The difficulties of the field stirred all the iron 
that was in his blood and nerved him with the 
manliness to stay at Ephesus, just because it was 
the thickest of the fight. He was not the man to 
shun a hard place, or run from a foe. 

Mexico is a hard field. Roman Catholicism in- 
trenched there, faces about like the lion of Gibral- 
tar and refuses to be driven from his lair. Every 

204 



DIFFICULTIES. 

inch of vantage ground has to be fought over, and 
won by a struggle unto blood that tries the stout- 
est hearts. Difficulties, whose mame is legion, ig- 
norance, superstition, fanaticism, prejudice, etc., 
lie in our way, so that the number of converts does 
not reward our efforts as in other lands. Shall we 
beat a retreat and invest in souls elsewhere? Or 
shall these things be the inspiration for a forward 
march? Shall we retire from the field of battle 
where we have engaged the enemy, because we 
chanced to fall upon the lines of attack where the 
charge is fiercest, the difficulties greatest and the 
results most discouraging? Would that savor of 
the heroism of Him who set His face like a flint 
to the difficulties of the way, and taking up His 
cross went quietly through all the besetting foes, 
even to the brow of Calvary? 



205 



CHAPTER XI. 
ENCOURAGEMENTS. 

"Watchman, what of the night?" Darkness, 
gross darkness had covered the land. The nation 
has been sitting in the shadows of spiritual night. 
The land, with crosses on well-nigh every hilltop, 
has been waiting for the Christ of the cross. It 
has been night. One long night. At last there 
are gleams of light to encourage us. The morning 
cometh. 

It is said that our converts are few. Missionary 
letters tell of a veritable Pentecost in Korea, 
where workers are waiting to train and baptize 
the crowds that wait for admission into the king- 
dom of heaven. Down on the Congo, the black 
sons of the swamps are gathering by the hundreds, 
seeking the way of life. Churches in China are 
being filled by those who have deserted Confucius 
and are clinging to the Christ. From India come 
messages of hope, that the Brahmins and the 
Buddhists are losing faith in their gods of wood 
and stone. It is not so with missions in Mexico, 
and our critics say that the work is a failure. Have 
they forgotten gospel work throughout the entire 
Moslem world? What about Arabia, Egypt, the 
Sudan, Turkey and other lands where Islam is 
supreme? Who comes from these fields to bear 
witness of vast throngs flocking into the kingdom? 
Missions among outright pagan nations reap abun- 

206 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 

dant harvests, while those among religions with 
half of the truth like Roman Catholicism and Mo- 
hammedanism find the task slow and plodding. 
One by one the converts put off the works of 
darkness. 

To illustrate. Turkey proper, that is, Turkey 
European and Asiatic, is the center of the Cres- 
cent. It is the stronghold of the Mohammedan 
faith. Missionary work was begun there as early 
as 1 82 1. According to the reports filed in the 
Foreign Missions Library of New York by the two 
Societies at work in Turkey, the American Board 
and the Reformed Presbyterian Board, there are 
at work in this field 191 missionaries, male and 
female, with native force of 1163, and a church 
membership of 15,690. 

Alongside of this showing, place the statistical 
results accomplished in Mexico. Fifty years after 
the establishment of missions in Turkey, the first 
missionaries opened work in Mexico. While Tur- 
key has a force of 191, Mexico has 176, and 
while the former has 1163 native men, Mexico has 
only 278. Yet the Mexican field has yielded a 
harvest of 28,618 souls, while Turkey missions re- 
port only 15,690. And the same proportion will 
hold good throughout the Mohammedan world. 
Missions in Roman Catholic lands can make as 
creditable showing as those in Mohammedan lands. 
Both fields are peculiarly difficult, but in neither 
case is there ground for discouragement. 

207 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

A mighty temple is to be reared. First of all, 
the dense forest is cleared away, the giant oaks 
felled and the trunks drawn out of the earth. The 
mounds are leveled, the debris removed, the rocks 
blasted and hauled from the grounds, the machin- 
ery placed, the excavation made and the earth 
carried away. After all this preparatory work is 
done, the foundations are laid and the structure is 
reared. For years missionaries have been laboring 
to build a national evangelical church in Mexico. 
To accomplish this, time and energies have had to 
be spent in clearing away the rubbish of supersti- 
tion, taking out the rocks of fanaticism, leveling 
down the hills of race prejudice, rilling up the val- 
leys of ignorance. Scarcely have they begun to 
build as yet. But the structure is rising, as the 
574 congregations with 28,618 members testify. 

The Spirituality of the Converts. 

"Missions are to be judged by the quality of the 
converts, and not by the quantity," is a dictum oft 
quoted in missionary literature. Our laborers are 
willing to accept the challenge. Though they 
"walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, 
banquetings and abominable idolatries," they have 
put off these works of darkness and no more live 
to the lust of men, but strive to do the will of God. 
Though born and reared in an atmosphere that 
begets no holy aspirations of dynamic power to 

208 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 

lift the soul upward from its groveling tempta- 
tions; without the splendid advantages of a Chris- 
tian education that brings within the compass of 
life all the unspeakable glories of sacred literature; 
bereft of the heritage of a pious parentage that 
shields the soul like a mighty breakwater against 
the surging tide of evil forces; still our converts 
make marked attainments in the divine life. This 
is not saying that some do not fall from their 
steadfastness and go back to the leeks and garlicks 
of Egypt, but the proportion is no greater, per- 
haps, than at the beginning, when one of the first 
twelve converts drew back to perdition. Most of 
them choose rather to suffer affliction with the 
people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin 
for a season. They esteem the reproach of Christ 
greater riches than the treasures of the Papacy, for 
they look unto the recompense of the reward. The 
fires of the Inquisition no longer burn, but the 
sneers and shouts of ridicule can do a work more 
deadly, and yet our converts remain true to- the 
Mabter. It is easier to go into the flames singing 
than to bear the daily, and ofttimes the hourly, 
taunt of jeering fanaticism that brands the mem- 
bers as traitors to their forefathers and to their 
country. Hosts of them have to> take up a cross 
and follow Him up the long, rocky way to the 
skull-shaped dome at the end of unflinching devo- 
tion and abide the issue there, hung by the merci- 
less spiritual nails of Romish hatred. Many do 

209 

u-u 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

not count their lives as dear unto themselves and 
are willing to die at the Jerusalem of duty for the 
name of the Lord Jesus. 

Dona Catarina Arcos was a Catholic of the 
Catholics. Her heart's chief devotion was un- 
sparingly poured at the feet of the image of the 
virgin Mary, whose altar sat in her room year after 
year. Before that image, with her rosary, she 
prayed morning, noon and night. She was a 
member of the sisterhood, composed of the most 
pious daughters of the virgin. Like Luther 
climbing the Scala Santa, she labored to be one 
of the straitest of the sect. With it all she was 
a great drunkard. Almost every afternoon she 
drank till too intoxicated to walk. Tired of the 
galling bondage of drink, she begged the virgin 
to rescue her from the fiendish clutches of the cup, 
but no help came. Her faith in the image was 
being undermined. One night she was passing 
the house where Rev. J. R. Edwards was preach- 
ing. The singing attracted her, and slipping in 
the room, she took a back seat trembling with fear. 
She would not have been surprised had a thunder- 
bolt rolled from the sky and shaken the building 
to ruins, so intense would be the anger of the vir- 
gin that this devoted daughter of hers should at- 
tend a gospel service. They were singing the 
twenty-third psalm, that nightingale song of di- 
vine peace to the soul. Down in the hidden depths 

2IO 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 

of her heart she knew that the virgin had never 
satisfied her soul-hunger. The psalm told her 
that Jesus could fill that aching void of her heart 
and make her life one grand, sweet song. The 
Master was knocking at the door of her heart and 
she let Him in. She abandoned her sisterhood, 
threw away her idols and opened her heart to 
make Jesus King of all within. Before she had 
besought the virgin to take away the thirst for 
drink that, like a vampire, was drinking up her 
very life blood, but the virgin was powerless to 
give her victory. Now she asked Jesus, and He 
who reached down His tender hand and drew 
Jerry McCauley out of the mire, lifted her and 
placed her feet upon the Rock of the Ages. The 
desire for drink was gone and has never returned. 
Fanatical friends sneered, cursed and persecuted 
her, but during all these fifteen years she has been 
true to her Lord. Like the adopted daughter of 
Ezekiel's vision, the Lord washed her from her 
drunkenness and idolatry, clothed her with the 
embroidered work and fine linen of a quiet holi- 
ness and her renown has gone forth among all 
who know her for the spiritual comeliness that 
He has put upon her. For six years she has had 
charge of the humbler part of the management of 
the Hattie Chester Institute, and no girl has gone 
out from that school without having felt the rich 
aroma of her quiet saintliness. She is a jewel for 
the retired pastor's crown. 

211 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Don Pablo Morato, of Chiconcillo, was an idola- 
ter, serving his idols with all the powers of body, 
soul and spirit. While yet young he was seized 
with a sickness which all felt would be fatal. His 
only hope was the famous image kept at Tampico 
Alto, about one hundred miles away. It was the 
figure of Christ nailed to the cross, soiled by the 
kisses of devotees of one hundred years and al- 
most eaten up by worms. With no power to save 
itself, they say that it can save others. To this 
"Senor de Tampico Alto," thousands up and down 
the coast say their daily prayers. When sickness 
or some other misfortune overtakes the faithful, 
they look to the image and make a vow that if it 
will render them the needed help, they will make 
a pilgrimage carrying a present and ever after- 
ward it will be the object of their supreme devo- 
tion. This Don Pablo did. He recovered and at 
once set out for the shrine, carrying the promised 
gift. There kneeling at the feet of this deaf, dumb, 
dead god, but to him all powerful, he gave it the 
glory of his healing and vowed to dedicate his 
soul with utter abandon to the will of his patron 
saint and savior. With him there was no thought 
of the Father's love; no repentance of his sin, 
though he had been a very Solomon in the wick- 
edness of carnal desire; no effort to find cleansing 
for his heart which had been a temple of foul wan- 
tonness and ungoverned lust; no faith in the Lamb 
of God to wash him from his innate and added 

212 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 

corruption. His religion consisted in prayer to 
this image three times a day, and trust in it for 
this world and the next. He bought a little pic- 
ture of the idol, had the resident priest to bless it, 
and returned home. For his little god he made an 
altar in his home and there he knelt three times 
each day. He himself affirms that with him there 
was no thought of the God above as he looked to 
his image. He expected that the image would 
arrange the matter of his sin and receive him into 
glory at last. Did he have to be absent from home, 
he could not pray till he returned to the feet of 
his image, where he would say all the prayers that 
were not repeated while away. Breathing out 
threatening somewhat like the apostle against the 
gospel, he did his utmost to bring to naught the 
cause of the gospel carried on in his village. 

His son went to Tampico and bought a Bible 
from Rev. N. E. Pressly. Returning home with 
his treasure, he would slip away into the woods 
at night with a candle to study, for he would not 
dare let his father see the accursed book. During 
the day the book lay hidden in the garret of the 
home. One night the father watched him go to 
the woods, return and hide his book. During the 
day he took down the Bible and studied for him- 
self. He had never seen such a book with its 
mines of hidden treasures. It led him out of the 
darkness. He began to attend the gospel services 
held in Chiconcillo. During his annual visits Dr. 

213 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Pressly would teach him for hours each day, for 
he received the truth with the unwavering faith 
of a little child. Clearly he saw the error of his 
way, brought his favorite idol to the mission- 
ary and, renouncing it forever, gave his heart to 
Christ. Now the idol was nothing and Jesus was 
all. At once he reared a family altar. Recogniz- 
ing that he was saved to serve, he heard the call, 
and like Andrew, began with his own family. Soon 
his wife and all the children followed him in his 
new faith. He asked the missionary to teach him 
that he might go to the neighboring ranches and 
tell them what great things the Lord had done 
for him. So intense was his zeal that Presbytery 
gave him a license, and through all these twenty 
years he has spent the Sabbaths in the ranches on 
the coast holding religious services, paying from 
his own private funds the rent of the house, and 
for his work receiving nothing save the hope of 
a crown at the Master's coming. He has a large 
farm and each day here and there on his rounds, 
he has secret places for prayer. By the roadside, 
on his farm and through the ranches, he talks the 
gospel, for the word of God is like a fire shut up in 
his bones, till weary with forbearing he cannot 
stay the message. Such examples of spirituality 
might be multiplied of those who, like the Thessa- 
lonians, have turned from their idols to serve the 
living and true God and to wait for His Son from 

214 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 

heaven. They quicken our faith and nurture with- 
in us larger hope for the ultimate evangelization 
of the land. 

The Evangelistic Spirit of the Converts. 

Fully three-fourths of the converts brought into 
the fold of Christ each year are the fruits of the 
personal efforts of the members, who have inter- 
ested them in the gospel and thus opened the way 
for the pastor or missionary to reach the seeking 
souls and lead them to the Savior. More than in 
the homeland, perhaps, have they felt the weight 
of the individual responsibility of souls. And it 
bodes good for the cause that they are awaking 
to see that they are their brother's keeper. It 
sounds a note of hope that they are catching the 
passion for souls. 

Nemecio Olguin is one of our humble mem- 
bers. When the college building was going up, 
he applied for work and was assigned the task of 
carrying brick and mortar for one of the masons. 
While he brought the material up the ladder, he 
seized every opportunity to tell the mason of his 
faith in Christ. It was all to him, and why not 
pass the blessing on to a fellow man in need? He 
showed him his Bible at noon as they rested. To 
the mason it was a new book, and he was irre- 
sistibly drawn to the teachings as the simple be- 
liever talked to him of the precious but profound 
truths of Christ and salvation. The mason was 

215 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

invited to the services, the Christian workman of- 
fering to go with him. The gospel took hold of 
him and he continued to attend. He was soon 
baptized and has led a worthy life. He will be one 
of the stars in the crown of this unlettered hod- 
carrier who sowed by all waters. 

Don Jose Ortiz had drifted into Texas and had 
accumulated somewhat of this world's goods. Life 
was at least comfortable till he gave his heart to 
Christ and heard the call to service. With the 
promptness of Andrew, he followed and went to 
seek his brothers and sisters. They were far to 
the south, but he was their debtor, and woe unto 
him if he withheld from them the good news of 
pardon. Selling all his possessions, with his fam- 
ily he started across the mountains in a cart on 
the journey of hundreds of miles to make his home 
with his people and win them for Christ. His ev- 
angelical faith made for him enemies on every 
hand. Fanaticism frowned on him and treated 
him as the offscourings of the social world. Work 
became scarce and he had to* endure untold sacri- 
fices, which were patiently endured to be able to 
save some of his people. Seeing Him who is in- 
visible, like Moses he endured the taunts and 
sneers, toiling and praying for his mother and 
brothers and sisters. At first they laughed and 
made fun of his religion without saints and images, 
but his quiet, holy life was a sermon preached 
with irresistible force, and one by one they were 

216 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 

plucked as brands from the burning. One even- 
ing- he came with his wife and children in his cart, 
saying that he was on his way back to Texas. He 
had won the mother, sister and three brothers. 
One sister still barred the door of her heart to the 
entrance of the Savior and he felt that she had 
grieved away the Spirit. For her there was no 
hope. His work was done and he was returning 
to his former home several hundred miles distant. 
Does not his self-denial and patient endurance 
remind us of the great apostle who made himself 
all things to all men that thereby he might save 
some? 

The Loyalty of the Converts to the Evangelical 

Church. 

Recognizing the Evangelical Church as the 
young David who has snatched them from the 
devouring jaws of the lion of Romanism and led 
them to the fold of the great Shepherd, there is 
born in their heart a deep gratitude for their de- 
liverer. They come to love the church that has 
"opened their eyes and turned them from dark- 
ness to light, and from the power of Satan unto 
God, that they might receive the forgiveness of 
sins and the inheritance among them that are 
sanctified by the faith that is in God." Freed from 
the task-masters of Roman Catholicism, which, 
with their whip-cords of anathemas, drive them 
to slavish fidelity, they feel something of Israel's 

217 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

love for Mt. Zion, where are centered all their 
hopes temporal and eternal. There are many who, 
rather than forget the Jerusalem of their spiritual 
hopes, would let their right hand forget its cun- 
ning. 

On preceding pages is told the story of the In- 
dependent movement that has spared no energy 
and expense to sow discord among the members 
of the native church, and has striven with cruel 
venom to embitter the native mind against the 
American missionary and the ecclesiastical organ- 
ization that he has come to establish and nurture 
into growth. These sowers of tares have reaped 
a most disappointing harvest. The Mexican con- 
verts have not forgotten these forty years of sacri- 
fice, persecutions and unremitting toil, the burden 
and heat of the day that the Evangelical Church 
has borne, that they might come out of bondage 
into the glorious liberty of sons of God. At Tam- 
pico and Cardenas, the Independents have left no 
stone unturned to alienate the converts from the 
church and the missionaries, but the gospel has 
suffered little harm at their hands. 

Don Pedro Garcia and his life will illustrate. 
From a Bible found in a trash pile in Tampico, 
and that had providentially fallen into his hands, 
the gospel light broke upon his soul. At once he 
went to the missionary of Tampico for more in- 
struction. From that interview he seemed a new 
man, born of the Spirit. On the altar of his heart 

218 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 

were kindled the fires of divine love, and loyalty 
to the gospel cause became a consuming flame. 
He asked the missionary to go to Las Lomas del 
Real, his native town, and preach to them. Rev. 
P. Trujillo went. But who would offer their home 
in which the services might be held to bring upon 
themselves the scorn and contempt of all for hav- 
ing sheltered and aided the hated Protestants in 
their "propaganda"? Don Pedro received the 
gospel worker in his home, which was made the 
headquarters of the gospel effort. It was an hour 
that tested his loyalty to the truth. He stood 
single-handed and alone. That night when the 
first service was held, a mob gathered about the 
door determined on an uproar to drive the Prot- 
estants from the town. They shouted "Death to 
the Protestants" and "Long live the Virgin !" Don 
Pedro* sat in his door as the preacher began. He 
saw the raging madness of the mob and knew 
their intent. Quietly he asked the minister to 
take a seat for a moment. He walked to a drawer 
and taking out a revolver he returned to the door, 
saying, "All of you are my friends and you know 
me. I would do> nothing rash or unwise, but my 
house and my friend within are to be respected. 
All are kindly invited to come in and hear the 
sermon. He who first protests will be left dead in 
his tracks." Turning to Rev. P. Trujillo, he asked 
him to proceed. Throughout his village he was 
known as a peaceable citizen, but he loved the 

219 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

truth more than all else and he was ready to de- 
fend the Bible at all hazards. His coolness and 
courage were enough. There was no further 
trouble. For years his home was used as a chapel, 
and there week by week he gathered his friends 
to study the Bible. Each month the gospel work- 
ers coming to preach found the prophet's chamber 
ever ready. Early he caught the spirit of David, 
who longed to build the tabernacle, and began to 
work toward the erection of a little chapel. He 
loved the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling 
places of Jacob. The chapel was almost finished 
when a cyclone swept over the village leaving the 
building well-nigh in ruins, but his love for his 
church never faltered. It was rebuilt, and on his 
shoulders fell almost the entire financial burden 
that the building called for. No Jew ever yearned 
more tenderly for his Zion than this aged servant 
longed for the courts of the Most High. At the 
dedication of the chapel he prayed, "Now, Lord, 
let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have 
seen Thy house in my town." 

When the lamented J. S. A. Hunter with fail- 
ing health, returned to the United States, with lit- 
tle hope of ever being able to resume his mission- 
ary labors, there followed him for three miles to- 
ward the station the entire membership of Ciudad 
del Maiz, sorrowing most of all that they would 
see his face no more. The heart of the native 
church beats true to the missionary and to the 

220 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 

Evangelical Church. For this reason our faith 
catches a larger vision of the final triumph of our 
missionary endeavor. 
The Loyalty of the Converts to the Word of God. 

"Thus saith the Lord" is the touchstone that 
settles all questions of right and wrong. Like the 
Bereans, who searched diligently the Word of God 
to see if the things taught by Paul were in accord 
with the mind of the Spirit, they endeavor to 
make the Bible the infallible standard of their be- 
liefs and practices. At times they fail, but most 
of them fall with their faces toward the ideal, and 
rise with firmer faith in God and a deeper devotion 
to His Word. 

Dona Hilaria of Rioverde, strove to remember 
the Sabbath day to keep it holy. It was her in- 
flexible rule to buy on Saturday all that was need- 
ed for the coming Lord's day. One Saturday 
night she found that she had not one cent for the 
purchases, and it was too late to borrow. She 
would not break the command of the blessed 
Book which was her unerring guide. The only 
course left, as she saw the question, was to fast till 
Monday, and that was done. The husband of Sra. 
Apolinar Cruz had no sympathy with the evangeli- 
cal faith and would often buy corn and frijoles on 
the Sabbath. She always refused to eat that which 
he had bought on the day which was to be kept 
holy. Sotero Lopez, a faithful member of Ciudad 
del Maiz, now gone to rest with Jesus, was told by 

221 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

his father to go to the plaza on the Sabbath and 
make certain purchases. He respectfully refused 
and stubbornly disobeyed his father that he might 
obey his God. He was carried before the mayor of 
the town to have him severely punished for his in- 
solent disobedience. God moved upon the heart of 
the mayor, as He once stirred the spirit of Cyrus, 
though the Persian did not know it, and the father 
was reproved for trying to drive the lad to fight 
against God. 

When Rev. G. Cruz first went to San Antonio 
to preach the gospel he found there a soothsayer 
of no little fame, Dn. Nicanor Lopez. He prac- 
ticed the curious arts as some did in Ephesus in 
the days of Paul. This had been his trade for 
years. The gospel gripped his soul and he gave 
his heart to Christ. The Word of God was to be 
his infallible guide book. He began to read how 
that the anger of God burned hot against the great 
sin of his life, and saw the fate of those who tolerat- 
ed wizards within their borders. In the Sabbath 
School he read of the converts of Ephesus who had 
followed this same nefarious calling, how that they 
had made a bonfire of their books on the streets 
of the city, abandoning forever their iniquitous 
practice. His loyalty to> the Word of God was 
such that he at once resolved to follow the example 
of the Ephesian converts. And though his books 
had cost him fifty dollars, which for a man of his 
standing was a little fortune, he burnt them all, 

222 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 

quitting forever his former life which the law of 
God had condemned. From his family have come 
two noble daughters, one our efficient trained 
nurse, Senorita Teresa Lopez, and the other now 
in charge of a little evangelical school in Car- 
denas. 

On a feast day, when Ciudad del Maiz was 
thronged with Roman Catholics from the sur- 
rounding ranches, Rev. J. S. A. Hunter offered 
Rev. G. Cruz a box of Bibles to sell on the public 
square. The law gave him the right to sell Bibles 
as others sold corn. The fanatics were furious. 
Had the Protestants dared to offer their accursed 
book for sale right under the shadow of their 
church and on their feast day? They persuaded 
the fanatical mayor of the town to send Rev. Cruz 
to jail. Nor was he released till the missionary 
threatened to telegraph the United States Consul 
for protection. Did the prisoner of the Lord 
count the sacrifice too great and forsake the cause 
of the grand old book of salvation? On the con- 
trary, it intensified his zeal and he came from the 
prison more resolutely bent on carrying the Bible 
to all the neighboring towns and talk its good 
news on all the public squares. His unflinching 
loyalty to the Word of God reminds one of the 
weeping prophet who, when the wicked king, Je- 
hoiachim, cut the roll in pieces and threw it into 
the flames, wrote another with added words, and 
sent it to the defiant monarch. 

223 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Has our faith in the ultimate evangelization of 
Mexico become faint-hearted and downcast? Do 
we wonder if after all it is worth while? These 
triumphs of grace will call back our retreating 
faith and burn into our hearts the buoyant opti- 
mism of the little drummer boy of Napoleon, who 
had forgotten how to beat a retreat, so sure was 
he always of victory. 

These shining examples of godliness will assure 
us that the light of the knowledge of the glory of 
God in the face of Jesus Christ can dispel the mid- 
night darkness of Romanism and lead the changed 
life up the path of the righteous man that shineth 
more and more unto the perfect day. These trans- 
formations of divine power should fire our droop- 
ing courage with that thrill that swept over Israel 
when they looked upon the grapes of Eschol which 
the spies had brought from the highland of Heb- 
ron. They were pledges of that land that flowed 
with milk and honey, and these transformations of 
grace are unmistakable earnests of those larger 
harvests that await us if we will only go up and 
possess the land. If the efforts of faith have 
digged from the hole of the pit these rare stones 
which have been 'hewn, fashioned and polished by 
the Spirit's inworking, why may we not set our 
hearts on tens of thousands that will stand at last 
pillars in the temple of the King, not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens? 

224 



ENCOURAGEMENTS. 

Watchman, what of the night? Stand upon the 
watchtower of faith and the spiritual signs upon 
our missionary horizon are clear. The days of 
idolatry in Mexico are numbered. It will yet 
share the severe fate of Dagon, the god of the 
Philistines, whom his devotees dared to set up face 
to face with the ark of the Lord God of Hosts. The 
god fell headlong to the floor. Our God will 
brook no rival. Mexico's millions of idols must 
soon fall shattered to earth by the dynamic power 
of the Christ lifted up on Calvary, that He might 
draw all men from their gods of wood and stone 
to Him who alone is the hope of the sinning and 
the suffering. The eye of faith can see the first 
grey streaks that play upon the eastern horizon, 
forerunners of the morning light to be ushered in 
by the rising of the Sun of righteousness with 
healing in His wings. The morning cometh. 



325 

M-16 



CHAPTER XII. 

OUR RESPONSIBILITY. 

Paul was debtor to the Gentile world, and the 
conviction fired his soul with a zeal that leaped 
over Alpine heights, defying his passage, and 
crossed streams of difficulty that would have dis- 
mayed souls of smaller mould. His responsibility 
to the nations that sat in the shadows of spiritual 
night, lay upon his heart with leaden weight, and 
he strove with all his might to meet the obligation. 

We are debtors to Mexico. The Providence of 
God has placed on our shoulders the responsibil- 
ity. We are our brother's keeper. 

i. The Responsibility of Proximity. 

From the very beginning the Master missionary 
outlined the plan of the world-wide campaign, 
marking most clearly the lines along which it was 
to proceed. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both 
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and 
unto the uttermost parts of the earth. " The holy 
city was to be the center of the movement that 
was to encompass the earth. From this great 
nerve center the apostles were to proceed in the 
order of proximity. From Judea they were to go 
into the white harvest fields of Samaria. They 
dare not leap beyond the bounds of Samaria and 
hasten to the uttermost parts of the earth. They 
must go to the hated Samaritans and gather out 
from them a people for His name. Only then 

216 



RESPONSIBILITIES. 

were they at liberty to cross the seas or to go over 
the deserts to Babylon. Shall we invert the divine 
marching orders? 

Beginning at Jerusalem, it is well to evangelize 
the homeland till King Jesus is crowned Lord of 
lords. Hordes of immigrants are pouring into 
the country on the east and on the west, lacking 
the better elements of civic righteousness and woe- 
fully lacking in all that goes to make up a man 
four square. It is the white man's burden to teach 
them the things that make for peace and eternal 
righteousness. Millions of free men are scattered 
over the South waiting for the bread of life, 
whose need-cry is carried on almost every wind 
that blows up from the sea. The apostles first 
gave the gospel to Judea, and the Evangelical 
Church of the United States may not slight these 
unchurched multitudes at their very doors. And 
if the Church would be true to the divine commis- 
sion, she must not stop short of the evangelization 
of the uttermost parts of the earth. A million a 
month are dying in China. They go to the bar 
of the offended God to learn for the first time that 
the Son of God died to atone for their offenses, 
yet the Church with the good news of pardon in 
her hands sleeps while the condemned throngs go 
silent to their eternal doom. Under the shadows 
of the Himalayas and in the Sudan thousands are 
waiting for the gospel, while Christians busy them- 
selves with things as trifling as gathering wild 

227 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

flowers by the way and the sheep perish far from 
the fold of the great Shepherd. "Beginning at 
Jerusalem .... and unto the uttermost parts of the 
earth." 

But let us not forget, oh let us not forget that 
between these two, Judea and the uttermost parts 
of the earth, lies Samaria, whose claim precedes 
those of the uttermost parts. Mexico is Samaria. 
She is our next door neighbor, only a river runs 
between. And if the Church of the United States 
would follow the divine order of the great com- 
mission, there should be given Mexico, forces of 
evangelization capable of making Christ known 
to this generation, before the Foreign Mission 
Boards set their faces toward the salvation of the 
far-away land of the uttermost parts of the earth. 
It is not claimed that the Church should wait for 
the complete conversion of the Republic. Only 
that missionaries and missionary equipment be 
sent such as can within reasonable expectations 
evangelize the land in this generation. 
2. The Failure of the Roman Catholic Church. 

For three hundred years the Roman Catholic 
Church has been on trial in Mexico. Providence 
has favored her with every opportunity to show 
the world what her religious system can do toward 
the spiritual betterment of the people. First of 
all, the Spanish conquerors struck the deadly 
blow at Aztec idolatry, demolishing the heathen 
teocalis or temples right and left as they marched 

228 



RESPONSIBILITIES. 

through the land subjugating the natives, north, 
south, east and west. It was a promised land, 
rid of all its Canaanites and open for possession in 
the name of the Lord of Hosts and of the gospel. 
For three centuries the reins of governmental con- 
trol were in the hands of the ecclesiastical authori- 
ties. The Church and State were one, till the Re- 
form laws were passed, under the leadership of 
Juarez. Thus the Church was in no way hampered 
by civil enactments which might have thwarted 
any plans proposed for the evangelization of the 
land. To no earthly potentate was the Church 
amenable. Could an opportunity more golden 
have been wished? 

Nor did they lack means. When their property 
was confiscated by the passage of the Reform laws, 
the value of the churches and real estate was esti- 
mated to be $300,000,000, from which they deriv- 
ed an annual income of $30,000,000.* Archbishop 
Montufar wrote to Spain how that the priests "em- 
ployed relays of five hundred to a thousand men, 
and without wages or a mouthful of bread to eat, 
the men being rounded up for four, six and twelve 
leagues."t Magnificent cathedrals were erected 
all over the country at no cost to the Church, and 
buildings of a private character, which accounts 
for the vast quantity of real estate held by the 
Catholics. 

What is the result of Romish efforts in Mexico? 

*Mexico Coming into the Light, J. W. Butler, page 57. 
tLatin America, H. W. Brown, page 87. 

229 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Abbe Domeleeh, an envoy sent by the pope to re- 
port on the condition of the Church in Mexico, 
confessed, "The Mexican faith is a dead faith. The 
abuse of external ceremonies, the facility of recon- 
ciling the devil with God, the absence of internal 
exercises of piety, have killed the faith in Mexico. 
It is vain to seek good fruit from the worthless 
tree which makes the religion the singular assem- 
blage of heartless devotion, shameful ignorance, 
insane superstition and hideous vice. The wor- 
ship of saints and madonnas so absorbs the devo- 
tion of the people that little time is left to think 
about God."* 

This severe arraignment is fully borne out by 
the facts of the preceding chapters. ROME HAS 
FAILED IN MEXICO. She has been weighed 
in the balances and found wanting. The gross 
ignorance of the fundamental principles of Chris- 
tianity, the abounding superstition, the blind fan- 
aticism, the blunted moral sense, the low moral 
standard among the common people, the Christ- 
less externalism of the Church, their mad devotion 
to saint worship, its mammonism, the corrupted 
priesthood, its demoniacal opposition to the light 
of the Bible, — these things speak with trumpet 
tongue and bear faithful testimony that ROME 
HAS FAILED IN MEXICO. 

And more. The glaring corruption of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church is driving multitudes from 

•Mexico and the United States, G. D. Abbott, page 203. 

23O 



RESPONSIBILITIES. 

her folds. Inevitably they become a prey to infi- 
delity and all its kindred evils. Cutting themselves 
aloof from the Romish faith and finding no other 
port of spiritual safety near, they set out for the 
high seas of liberalism and become the most hope- 
less subjects for the gospel workers. They become 
dead to all appeals. Religious sentiment seems to 
shrivel up and die, leaving the soul a victim to free 
thought, which means no heaven, no hell, no God 
and no accountability. It is the seven spirits that 
returned to the house from which they had gone 
out, they find it swept of all religion, empty and 
garnished. They take with themselves seven other 
spirits more wicked than themselves, and the last 
state of the soul is worse than at the first, when 
the youth stepped forth into the sphere of re- 
sponsibility without God. 

Mexico is without spiritual guides. And the 
destitution, far more vocal than the call of words, 
pleads with the appeal of a Macedonian cry for 
help. Shall we leave them to the mercy of the 
false shepherds? Shall we leave them without 
chart or compass to drift on the high seas of god- 
lessness and hopelessness? Shall we deny them 
the anchor of our gospel that will save their bark 
from the reefs and rocks that will surely dash 
them to death and to doom? 

3. The Responsibility of An Open Door. 

That noble missionary, Xavier, who went like a 
flaming torch from land to land, came at last to 

231 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

the walled kingdom of China, and lying on a bed 
of fever, looked up at the great wall that shut out 
all gospel effort by governmental edict, cried, "Oh 
rock, rock, when wilt thou open to my Master." 
Not many years have passed since a wall just as 
impregnable reared itself defiantly in the face of 
the gospel messengers, and said that to the Rio 
Grande they might come and no farther. Prior 
to the promulgation of the Reform laws, all gospel 
effort was strictly forbidden. The reins of power 
were in the hands of the bishops and archbishops, 
and the iron arm of law was stretched forth to 
make the Catholic faith supreme and gospel work- 
ers guilty of death. The fires of the Inquisition 
were kept burning for the gospel heretics, and 
2302 were burned because they sought light. The 
sale and reading of the Bible were placed under 
the ban of condemnation by enactments more 
stringent than those of the States that forbid the 
transportation of obscene literature. And even 
after the Reform laws lifted the ban and made the 
gospel welcome, mad fanaticism lurking away in 
the corners of the land beyond the reach of law, 
has left a long list of martyrs. Patriots like Hid- 
algo* Juarez and a host of unnamed heroes bore 
their breasts to the storm of leaden rain and hoist- 
ed the banner of religious freedom. Brave martyrs 
have paid for their convictions with the price of 
blood and have made liberty of conscience a liv- 
ing fact for all who would walk in the unfettered 

232 



RESPONSIBILITIES. 

freedom of the Son of God. They have opened 
the doors and the gospel herald is safe to go with 
Bible in hand. Shall we hold in light esteem this 
opportunity so dearly bought? Gospel forerun- 
ners have opened the doors, shall we enter? Shall 
we learn the lesson of the sculptor who carved out 
of stone the god of opportunity with her face 
covered with hair, because men so seldom recog- 
nize her coming, and attached wings to her feet 
because she does not tarry long? Today the gates 
are open wide, tomorrow they may be shut, for 
liberalism and free thought will have entered and 
taken possession of the land for the prince of dark- 
ness. Truly we are Philadelphians of opportunity. 
Shall we prove Laodiceans of lukewarmness? 

4. Providence is Leading the Way. 

With no thought of popish infallibility, we ac- 
cept the call of the Church as the call of God. 
From the year 1878, when the Synod first resolved 
to open the Mexican Mission, through the years 
it has ratified its action at every one of its thirty- 
one annual meetings. Not once has that ecclesi- 
astical body affirmed its lack of faith in the leading 
of the Head of the Church. Rather it has repeat- 
edly affirmed its confidence that the Lord of hosts 
is with us in our missionary campaign, sending out 
missionaries from time to time. He has placed 
the seal and stamp of His approval upon the work. 
He has opened doors, and has been the help and 

233 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

inspiration of the missionaries, giving them hun- 
dreds of souls for their hire. 

Does not the Master's leading call for loyal 
following? When the pillar of cloud began its 
majestic forward movement from above the camp 
of the nation and from all quarters sounded the 
silver trumpets which every Israelite understood 
as the divine signal for marching, the millions at 
once struck their tents and pushed out into the 
trackless desert, following the Lord of Hosts. 
When the Spirit forbade the apostle to enter By- 
thinia on the right hand, and Mysia on the left, 
he went straight forward to the coast where he 
caught the vision of the man from Macedonia beg- 
ging him to come over and help. Assuredly gath- 
ering that the Lord had called him, and without 
faltering he crossed the Hellespont and planted 
the cross in pagan Greece. No less clear than the 
quiet march of the cloud, the ringing call of the 
silver trumpets or the secret stirrings of the Spirit, 
is the providential call of God that our Church 
undertake on a worthy scale the evangelization of 
Mexico. Shall we follow His leading? 

5. The Responsibility of a National Debt. 

Mexico looks to the United States for her spir- 
itual regeneration. When the noble Juarez was 
persecuted by the demagogue, Santa Anna, and 
driven from his native land, he reached New Or- 
leans. There he studied the underlying principles 
of our free institutions, and after their spirit he 

234 



RESPONSIBILITIES. 

framed laws that have led the country along the 
ways of amazing prosperity. When the French, 
under the false pretense of collecting certain pri- 
vate financial obligations of their subjects, entered 
the country, hoisted their flag over the capital and 
placed Maximilian, an Austrian prince, on the 
throne, it was a voice from Washington that spoke 
to the government at Paris, demanding the with- 
drawal of their forces from the land, leaving the 
nation free and sovereign once more. American 
capital is pouring into the country, bringing ma- 
terial for the development of its mining industry, 
the construction of railroads, introducing modern 
methods of agriculture, importing American ma- 
chinery of all kinds. 

Great has been our contribution to the material 
and intellectual progress of the country. Shall we 
withhold our spiritual help, that of which the 
American nation should be proudest? We throw 
about Mexico the shield of the Monroe Doctrine, 
and say to the foreign powers that no other flag 
shall float over Chapultepec, their proud Capital. 
This is well. It is nothing less than the stronger 
brother yielding to the dictates of duty toward the 
weaker. But shall we leave them an easy prey to 
the deadly enemies of superstition, infidelity, ig- 
norance, bigotry and the long attendant train of 
evils far more to be dreaded than the usurpation 
of power at the hand of a foreign nation? While 
we aid them in thrusting the foreign invaders from 

235 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

their shores, shall we not offer them the gospel of 
the Son of God, which alone can make men free, 
and without which all are fettered slaves? While 
the United States makes her contribution of a free 
press and free institutions, shall we fail to give 
them the Word of God on which all our civil in- 
stitutions are founded and without which our su- 
perstructure of civic righteousness would be but 
a frail house built on the shifting sand? Stirred 
by our example of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence that vested the United States with the author- 
ity to stand in the council chamber of the sover- 
eign nations of the world, Mexico rose up in the 
might of eternal liberty and burst asunder the 
shackels that had bound them for centuries. Shall 
we now withhold from them our pattern of the 
kingdom of heaven? Daniel Webster spoke more 
wisely than he knew, when he said, "Our greatest 
danger is that we have to the south of us a sister 
nation in almost mortal agony, and no one 
amongst us seems to be willing to lend a helping 
hand." 

6. We Have Laid Our Hands to the Plow and 
Must Not Turn Back. 

For thirty-one years the Church has directed 
its missionary agencies toward the evangelization 
of our field in Mexico. Men and money have 
been sent to the front of the firing line. The mis- 
sionaries are giving themselves to the work with 

236 



RESPONSIBILITIES. 

unstinted devotion, and not a few sleep in Mexican 
graves. Prayers have been ascending from family 
altars over the Synod for these score and a half 
of years. We have been laying the foundations of 
a spiritual temple, which fitly framed, is growing 
together in the Lord. Shall we leave a supply of 
men utterly inadequate to rear the walls of the 
building and expect a worthy structure not to be 
ashamed of at His coming? We 'have entered the 
white harvest fields of Mexico and have committed 
ourselves to the evangelization of 706,799 souls. 
Shall we expect four missionaries and eight native 
men to reap the harvests of these wide, wide 
regions? We have carried the war into the en- 
emy's country, storming their citadels of power, 
and now that the opposition is stubborn and the 
spoils not so remunerative, s'hall we fail to> send 
the needed recruits to insure a glorious victory 
for our Lord? Would we be true to the men and 
women on the field to place on their shoulders the 
heavy, unreasonable task of evangelizing 716,457 
souls? Would we be true to these souls whose 
weal or woe is in our hands? Would we be true 
to Him who has assigned to us the taking of this 
wing of the line of the enemy? Would we be true 
to ourselves to leave half finished this work already 
begun? 

On Calton hill there stands a half-finished struc- 
ture that overlooks the Scotch Athens. It was 
modeled after the Greek Parthenon, the finest 

237 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

specimen of ancient architecture, that crowning 
glory of the .classic city of Pericles, and was de- 
signed to perpetuate the undying memory of those 
who stood like a breakwater against the rolling 
tide of Napoleon's popularity at Waterloo and 
checked it forever. It was a most worthy cause, 
and a magnificent monument planned; but alas, 
there it stands, an occasion for mockers to laugh 
at, the ambition of those whose plans were too 
much for their resources. Fierce rebuke to the 
vacillating and the unstable. Shall that be the ver- 
dict of future generations as they look on our ef- 
forts for the redemption of our part of the Mexi- 
can field? "This man began to build, but was not 
able to finish." It must be so unless we rally to 
the help of the Lord against the mighty, and 
triple and quadruple our forces so as to be able 
to prosecute to a worthy conclusion the missionary 
plans outlined by our great and godly forefathers 
for a grand structure on Mexican soil that would 
lift its head high above the mist of the ages and 
tell unborn generations that we were true to the 
thousands committed to* our spiritual keeping. 
Will we leave our work half finished? 



238 



CHAPTER XIII. 

FORWARD. 

"Speak unto the children of Israel that they go 
forward." Not less clear and commanding is that 
voice that rings with the emphasis of a clarion 
call to duty as we face the evangelization of our 
Mexican field. "The King's business requireth 
haste." 

i. Larger Visions. 

That prince of early missionaries, who literally 
burned out for his Lord, used to catch the visions 
of the nations redeemed and prostrate at the feet 
of Jesus; and he was wont to cry out, "Yet more, 
oh my God, yet more : more sufferings, more hard- 
ships, more scourgings for Thy name, more sick- 
nesses, more deaths if Thou wilt grant me more 
souls. Yet more, oh my God, yet more." Let us 
catch the vision of our field evangelized and souls 
redeemed from the demons of idolatry, clothed in 
their right mind and sitting at the feet of Jesus, 
brought under the spell of that name that is above 
every name, and our faith will inspire us on over 
all opposition with the consuming zeal of a Xavier. 

We have looked at Roman Catholicism in Mex- 
ico, not less idolatrous than the worship of Baal, 
against which the prophets hurled their fiery de- 
nunciations for centuries, or the fetish worshippers 
of the jungles of Africa, who press the tiny wood- 

2 39 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

en god to their bosom with the fond caresses of 
a deep passion; we have seen the strange supersti- 
tions of the masses who will put their trust in a 
stone or piece of wood that chanced to bear the 
likeness of a face, taking unto themselves the con- 
solation that it is the photograph of a saint Who 
can hear and heed their prayers; we have seen the 
bitter enmity toward the gospel that has with fire 
and faggot striven to burn all who would follow 
the gospel of our only Savior, Jesus Christ; we 
have seen the power of Rome over her devotees 
as she drives with the whipcords of the threats of 
excommunication, more slavishly than the task- 
masters did in Pharaoh's day; we have seen the 
walls of fanaticism as impregnable as those of Jer- 
icho over which the gospel herald must pass to 
possess the land for God. Have these revelations 
filled us with dismay? Are we ready to shrink 
back with the ten spies who had seen the Canaan- 
itish giants intrenched in their cities walled up to 
heaven? Let us catch the vision of Caleb and 
Joshua. "Let us go up and possess it, for we are 
well able to overcome it." Their God was might- 
ier than idols. "They that be with us are far more 
than they that be with them." By the vital faith 
of a trumpet blast and a forward march, these Jer- 
icho walls will fall and obstacles formidable as Jor- 
dan's swollen streams will part to let us pass. A 
larger faith in our God and the final outcome of 
our efforts, is the crying need of the hour. 

240 



FORWARD. 

2. Larger Love for Souls. 

The Lord is gathering that great multitude 
which no man can number, of all nations and kin- 
dreds and peoples and tongues. They are to stand 
before the throne and before the Lamb clothed 
with white robes and with palms in their hands. 
Of the millions now bowed under the thraldom of 
Roman Catholicism there are many who might be- 
come partakers of this inheritance of the saints in 
light. Of the souls of our field who knows how 
many might go to the mansions of the Father's 
house prepared for those who believe on His Son. 
Shall we deny them this blessedness? They hun- 
ger for the living and true God, evidenced by the 
intense religiousness that makes them bow to 
stocks and stones. Shall we deny them the glory 
of the beatific vision and the bliss of serving Him 
forever and ever? They hunger for the bread of 
life. Shall we leave them to their pain through 
that long night of eternal blackness that will never 
dawn into morning light? 

And if we do not preach them the truth of 
Christ, then who will? The Providence of God 
has marked off this field and given to us the im- 
perative duty of its evangelization. To whom but 
to us can they stretch their hands imploring help? 
If these thousands ever come to taste the good- 
ness of God and be satisfied with the fullness of 
joy in His presence, it must be through the efforts 
of our denomination. There are no* others to 

241 

M-16 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

open the prison doors and lead 'them out into the 
glorious liberty of Christ, no others to proclaim 
to them that the great year of the gospel jubilee 
has come through the atonement of the Lamb of 
God. 

Give me Thy heart, oh Christ, Thy love untold. 
That I like Thee may pity, like Thee may preach 
For round me spreads on every side a waste 
Drearer than that which moved Thy soul to sadness. 
No ray hath pierced this immemorial gloom 
And scarce these darkened toiling myriads taste 
Even a few drops of fleeting earthly gladness 
As they move on slow, silent to the tomb. 

3. Larger Reinforcements. 

The National Missionary Conference, which 
met in Chicago, May 3-6, 1910, composed of 4,146 
delegates, representing the laymen of the Christian 
Church of the United States, affirmed, "We accept 
as a working policy the standard that in addition 
to the native agencies, there should be provided 
from the churches of Christian lands an average of 
at least one missionary to every twenty-five thou- 
sand of the people to be evangelized." 

Mr. J. R. Mott, one of the sanest and most 
thorough students of Missions, states that, "the 
leading authorities on all mission fields have been 
asked to estimate how many missionaries, in addi- 
tion to the native force, would be required to so 
lead the missionary enterprise as to accomplish the 
evangelization of those countries within a genera- 
tion. The highest number suggested by any one 

242 



FORWARD. 

is one missionary to every 10,000 of the heathen 
population. Few gave a lower estimate than one 
to every 100,000. The number most frequently 
mentioned is one to every 20,000. The average 
number given is one to every 50,000."* 

Between the statement of the National Mis- 
sionary Conference to the effect that the evangeli- 
zation of the world in this generation calls for one 
foreign missionary to every 25,000 souls, and the 
estimate of the foreign missionaries themselves 
that the speedy evangelization of the world de- 
mands one missionary to every 50,000, let us take 
the average, which is one to every 37,500 souls, 
and calculate our need of reinforcement on that 
conservative basis. Our Mexican field has a popu- 
lation of 706,799. To equip the missionary forces 
with one foreign missionary to every 37,500 would 
call for 19 foreign workers. AT PRESENT WE 
HAVE ONLY FOUR ON THE FIELD. 

To institute a comparison. The state of South 
Carolina has an area of 30,370 square miles, while 
our Mission field comprises 31,221 square miles. 
According to the census of 1900 the white popula- 
tion of South Carolina numbered 557,807, while 
706,799 souls are found on our Mission field. Thus 
the state of South Carolina could be placed on our 
field and fail to cover the entire territory, while her 
population is one-fifth less than the number of 
souls for whose evangelization we are responsible 

♦The Evangelization of the World in this Generation. Mott. 
page 162. 

243 , . 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

in Mexico. Let us compare the provision made 
for the spiritual needs of these two sections. With- 
in the bounds of South Carolina 1025 ministers are 
laboring to effect the complete evangelization of 
the white race of the state, with 2322 organized 
churches rallying to their help. (Handbook of 
South Carolina, E. J. Watson, page 604.) 

To accomplish that identical work for our Mexi- 
can field with a greater population, are employed 
four foreign missionaries and eight native preach- 
ers. THESE TWELVE MEN ARE EXPECT- 
ED TO DO FOR OUR MISSION FIELD EX- 
ACTLY WHAT THE 1025 ARE TO DO FOR 
THE 42 COUNTIES OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 
Is it possible? Is it reasonable? Is it worthy of us? 

But the comparison is entirely superficial. The 
facilities for reaching the people are not the same. 
In all our mission field there are only two rail- 
roads, while over the counties of South Carolina 
are to be found a network of railway lines. The 
missionaries meet the most bitter opposition, while 
throughout the above named state the people are at 
least favorably disposed toward the gospel and 
heartily welcome the minister into their homes. 
To make the comparison compare we must enter 
all the thousands of homes of those 2322 churches 
and tear down the family altars and counteract all 
gospel influences, obliterate the schools where are 
taught the fundamental principles of the Word of 
God, burn all the Bibles, demolish all the printing 

244 



FORWARD. 

presses that issue millions of copies of evangelical 
periodicals, convert the Sabbath into a holiday, 
make one-half of the people ignorant even of the 
alphabet, fill their minds with the most stupefying 
superstitions, and change all to idolaters bowing 
down to< stocks and stones. Then the 1025 min- 
isters would confront a task somewhat similar to 
that which the Church has laid upon the shoulders 
of us twelve. Does it not look as if we were play- 
ing with this great duty of evangelizing these 
706,799 souls of our field? 

If it be said that those of South Carolina are 
our fellow citizens, and for that reason our debt 
to them is more binding, let us remind ourselves 
that we have undertaken to give Mexico the same 
gospel with its unspeakably great blessings of di- 
vine grace. And if we pretend to offer both fields 
the same evangel of pardon and peace and power, 
and in addition to these, the necessary means to 
attain to these supreme goals of human desire, is 
it just to assign 1025 to one field and 12 to the 
other, knowing that the latter field is beset with 
difficulties such as are never seen at home? Mak- 
ing all due allowance for the fact that these seven- 
teen counties are our own people, bone of our bone 
and flesh of our flesh, does not the proportion of 
1025 workers to 12 pass beyond the bounds of any- 
thing reasonable? 

At least give the field eight foreign mission- 
aries and increase the force each year till it is 

245 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

capable of carrying to a successful conclusion the 
evangelization of the country. Would nine mis- 
sionaries (eight for Mexico, and one for India) be 
too many for the Church to send to the foreign 
field? The report of the last Synod gave the As- 
sociate Reformed Presbyterian Church a member- 
ship of 13,469. To send out four more workers 
would give the Church one foreign missionary for 
every 1500 members approximately. Is that aim 
too high? The Moravian Church has sent out one 
missionary for every 66 members. Would we be 
willing to concede that their zeal for the hasten- 
ing of the kingdom of our Lord bears toward ours 
the proportion of 22 to one? 

Are volunteers wanting? When the professions 
are crowded till there is hardly standing room even 
at the top, shall this, the greatest work in the 
world, lack for laborers? The Son of God goes 
forth to war for His kingly crown and to bring the 
ends of the earth within the confines of His promis- 
ed possessions, shall we let Him go alone? Rather 
shall we not go with Him and stand at last by His 
side in the quiet and glory of that eternal victory? 
Shall our young men and women hear the sweet 
voice calling "that makes whoever hears a home- 
sick soul thereafter till he follows it to heaven," 
and not lay their hands to "the work that stands at 
the present time in the front rank of all the tasks we 
have to fulfil, the primary work of the Church?" 
The Roman poet tells of a wounded soldier bleed- 

246 



FORWARD. 

ing to death upon his couch. He heard the roar 
of battle on the Alban hills, "the hurling of the 
great stones from the catapult, and the sound of 
clashing steel." And though his eyes were filming 
with death, he arose from his bed and started for 
the far-away Alban heights, praying to the gods 
that they would give him strength to reach the 
lines of battle and strike just one blow for the 
triumph of the great golden eagle. Shall we love 
less our King and strive less for the supremacy of 
His kingdom? Beats the heart of our young men 
so dead to the heroic that they do not hail with 
supreme joy the opportunity to go to the front of 
the Master's far-flung battle line, where the oppo- 
sition is deadliest and the battle wages more furi- 
ously? 

And the number of our native ministers must 
be greatly multiplied. A competent missionary* 
reckons that for the effective evangelization of a 
field ten native men are needed for each foreign 
missionary. (Evangelization of the World in this 
Generation, Mott, p. 166.) On this basis we shall 
have to increase our present force fivefold. From 
whence may we expect so large an increase? For 
this very purpose was established the Preparatory 
and Theological School. But to be able to supply 
this enlarged demand, the institution must have 
better equipment. At present it is expected that 
the principal and one assistant teach 50 students, 
taking them through a curriculum which begins 

2 47 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

with the multiplication table, leading through the 
higher branches to a full literary graduation, and 
then a theological course of study. It involves a 
task of 60 classes daily, thirty for each teacher. No 
sane person will believe that with this overcrowd- 
ing of work the school can rise to its full measure 
of duty and furnish an educated laity and a quali- 
fied ministry. 

The Presbyterians are operating a similar school 
at Cooyoacan with an enrollment of JJ students. 
Their faculty consists of three qualified native 
teachers, two American missionaries and an- 
other American missionary who devotes one-half 
of his time to the work. The appropriation calls 
for $6375, including the salaries of the mission- 
aries. The teaching force of our school numbers 
two men, with an appropriation of $2078, includ- 
ing the salary of the missionary who is principal. 

For a larger equipment of this institution we 
most earnestly plead. By the crying need of a 
capable native ministry, for the lack of which 
open doors of opportunity have waited for 
scores of years with no messenger to heed the 
Macedonian call; by the important place which 
the native ministry holds in the missionary ma- 
chinery, without which the Church can not shoul- 
der the responsibility that our Lord has laid at our 
door and go to the great white throne clean of 
the blood of men; by the possibilities of a mission 
force thoroughly equipped with a consecrated pre- 

248 



FORWARD. 

pared Mexican ministry, by which under the direc- 
tion of an adequate foreign missionary force, we 
might make Christ known to these hundreds of 
thousands, and thus serve our own generation by 
the will of God ere we fall asleep; by these sub- 
lime considerations we plead for a larger and more 
worthy equipment of the institution. On it in 
large measure depends the success or failure of 
the mission. From it are to come the men that 
must stand at the head of the congregational ac- 
tivities and lead these to their final victory. 
4. Larger Appropriation. 

For the more thorough equipment of the mis- 
sionary enterprise and the needed enlargement, 
conservative calculations will call for an appropria- 
tion of $26,000 annually. This estimate is not too 
large for our membership of 13,469, making the 
contribution only $2 for each member toward this 
the greatest work the Church has attempted in all 
her history, the work that lies heaviest upon the 
heart of Him whom we love, and that will yield the 
largest returns at that day when all must carry to 
His judgment seat the talents entrusted and those 
gained while He tarried. Who does not spend a 
greater sum on some extra outing of the year, 
some extra article of clothing that might be dis- 
carded from one's life without serious discomfort? 

To reach this high water mark of missionary ap- 
propriation it will be necessary to introduce into 
our missionary enterprise the sound, practical prin- 

249 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

ciples similar to those on which commercial in- 
terests are based. The late J. H. Converse, who 
for years was president of the Baldwin Locomotive 
Works, and who translated his words into works, 
said, "When business men apply to the work of 
missions the same energy and intelligence which 
govern in their commercial ventures, then the pro- 
position to evangelize the world in this generation 
will no longer be a dream." And does not the 
missionary cause merit such? Missions are no 
longer the butt of the sneers of the Sydney Smith 
type, no longer thought of as the dream of certain 
star-gazers, a spiritual mirage in the wild desert 
of imagination, a Utopia of the pulpit. The mis- 
sionary ideals are the most reasonable and the 
methods the most practical. More than one hun- 
dred years of missionary history, with its hope- 
inspiring results, have reduced its methods to a 
literal science and justified the undertaking as in- 
tensely practical and worthy of the most modern 
methods of commercial economy. The Mission 
Boards have come up the paths of the century per- 
fecting their modus operandi till no business firm 
invests their capital more economically or more 
wisely than they. These conditions call upon the 
rank and file of the Church to look upon the cru- 
sade of missions as the most practical scheme of 
the ages and respond accordingly. Then two dol- 
lars annually toward this grand world-wide cam- 
paign for souls will seem but a light task. 

250 



FORWARD. 

And the spirit of self-sacrifice must grip our 
souls. Let us begin to give not merely that which 
we do not need, but that which we can hardly af- 
ford to do without. It is the spirit of David, who 
refused to take the summit of Mt. Zion without 
pay from his pagan friend, for there on that spot 
he would place the house of God and he would 
not offer His God that which cost him nothing. 
His gift had to pass through the hands of self- 
denial, and was more acceptable to his God. And 
why should not those who tarry by the stuff and 
hold the ropes practice self-sacrifice for missions 
when they have asked the missionary to give up 
much and go to the front, where self-denial must 
be one of the cardinal practices of his daily life? 
Bishop Thoburn, who gave his best days to India, 
has said: "If I as a. missionary am expected to 
give up all things for the interests of the work, to 
count home and treasure, and ease and personal 
comfort as nothing, when the interests of the work 
are at stake, my brother in the States who un- 
hesitatingly assigns me this standard of duty, 
should be governed by a spirit precisely similar." 

Nothing will so surely foster this spirit as a 
clearer vision of Him who, though rich in all the 
glories of the Godhead, counted being on an equal- 
ity with God, a thing not to be grasped at, but 
emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, mak- 
ing Himself so poor that though the foxes of the 
fields had caves and the birds of the air had nests, 

2 5* 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

He had not where to lay His head. He lived in a 
borrowed home, sailed in a borrowed ship, rode 
on a borrowed ass and after death was laid away 
in a borrowed tomb. Viewed in the light of His 
sublime sacrifice, liberality will become the joy of 
life and two dollars will seem a small sum to help 
win the nations from their idols and rally them to 
the banner of Him who sacrificed His all for us. 

5. More Prayer. 

On Patmos the Apostle John saw the angel 
stand before the throne, and with the golden cen- 
ser offer the incense of the prayer of the saints 
upon the altar before the throne, and the smoke 
of the offering ascended before God as a sweet- 
smelling savor. Then from the fires of sacrifice 
upon the altar the angel cast down to earth burn- 
ing incense, and lo there were thunderings, light- 
nings and an earthquake. These thunder peals, 
lightning flashes, and mighty upheavals of nature 
came about as the results of the prayers of the 
saints offered by the Angel of Intercession. It 
has always been true. By prayer Moses saved the 
nation, four million strong, whom God would de- 
stroy for the idolatry of the golden calf. By the 
uplifted rod the sea and river divided, the Jericho 
walls fell down at the trumpet blast, and whole 
nations, with chariots of iron, were routed and 
spoiled to possess the land of promise. Daniel 
pleaded the promise of the return of his nation 

252 



FORWARD. 

from exile and God moved upon the heart of Cy- 
rus to fulfil His word without knowing it. After 
days of waiting the cloven tongues of Pentecost 
descended upon the disciples gathered in the up- 
per room and going out, they reaped a harvest of 
three thousand souls. 

The story of the modern Acts of the apostles 
has been written by an angel's hand in the Lamb's 
book of life, recording results brought to pass by 
prayer, not less wonderful than the thunderpeals 
and lightning flashes of the Apocalyptic vision. 
The mighty quickenings on the mission fields have 
all been born in the upper room of prayer and 
fasting. By prayer Mackay gathered on his 
twelfth anniversary of missionary effort all his liv- 
ing converts to a great love feast, and 1200 sat 
down to the table of the Lord. By prayer the 
Telugu revival spread and intensified till it had 
equalled that of Pentecost, and in 18 months ten 
thousand had been added to the list of the saved. 
By prayer the fifty years of gospel effort in the 
Fiji Islands, saw transformations so marvelous that 
though the missionaries who introduced the work 
had first to gather up the skulls of victims sacri- 
ficed at the carnival feasts, they lived to see 15,000 
churches planted and 104,000 souls filling these 
from Saibbath to Sabbath. By prayer Mackay 
and Hannington stormed the centers of blood- 
thirsty Uganda that had hacked to pieces hun- 
dreds of Christians and in 17 years the blood of 

253 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Hannington had borne the fruit of 17,000 souls. 
By prayer there resulted in Manchuria a great 
shaking of the dry bones after 25 years of work, 
and was reaped the golden harvest of 19,000 souls. 
Do not these stirring signals of divine blessing 
call us with clarion peal to give ourselves more un- 
sparingly to prayer, to stand upon the watch-tow- 
ers of intercession, not holding our peace day nor 
night, and giving Him no rest till He make our 
mission field a praise in the earth? Face to face 
with the dearth of spiritual results, do we cry with 
Israel, "Awake, awake, put on thy strength, oh 
arm of the Lord," the Master answers as He did 
His chosen people, "Awake, awake, put on thy 
strength, oh Zion." Heeding His voice, let us rise in 
the almightiness of faithful agonizing prayer for 
the speedy coming of His kingdom in Mexico. Let 
us set apart days for fasting and prayer, pleading 
for the refreshing showers of grace upon the 
parching mission field, that its desert places may 
blossom like the rose. Let us make our morning 
watch an opportunity for missions, when we shall 
cry mightily to God for a Pentecostal outpouring 
of His Spirit upon the reapers of the white harvest 
fields of the Regions Beyond. Let us organize 
praying bands tarrying in the upper room and 
waiting for the fulfilment of the promise to give 
His Son the heathen for His inheritance. Let us 
preach the lament of the Lord that there are none 
that stir themselves to take hold of Him in inter- 

254 



FORWARD. 

cessory prayer, the sin of ceasing to pray for the 
perishing millions, the loud call for princes in Israel 
who may take hold of the angel of blessing and 
never let Him go till He causes to blow upon the 
valley of dry bones of spiritual deadness the vital- 
izing breath of the Almighty Spirit that they may 
rise and live. And above all, let us each begin to 
pray daily for our mission work with the intensity 
of David Brainard, who agonized in intercession 
for the pagan tribes, till his clothes were saturated 
with perspiration. "Lord, teach us to pray." 

6. More Love for Christ. 

In the quiet of the upper room, after the resur- 
rection, on the mountains of Galilee during those 
forty days, on the slopes of Mt. Olivet just before 
He ascended, the Master thrice gave the commis- 
sion that shifts on our shoulders the obligation to 
go into all the world and preach the gospel to 
every creature. It was the last command, the only 
command given after He rose from the dead. And 
if we shirk the responsibility and fail to preach the 
gospel to the 706,799 souls whom the hand of 
Providence have so unmistakably assigned to our 
spiritual keeping, will not He add at last, "Why 
call ye Me Lord and do not the things that I say"? 
What we have done for these needy ones, will be 
the unfailing test of our loyalty to Him at that 
great day of His appearing. "Inasmuch as ye have 
done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done 
it unto me." 

255 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do," asked 
Paul. He was commissioned to carry the gospel 
to the Gentiles, and to fulfil his ministry he press- 
ed toward the mark with undaunted zeal, though 
it meant the beasts of Ephesus, five times forty 
stripes save one, shipwreck on the seas, the under- 
ground dungeon at Rome and at last the execu- 
tioner's ax. Shall we be less loyal to His express 
command to evangelize the thousands of Mexico? 
If not, how shall we stand unashamed before Him 
at His coming and say, "I have finished the work 
that Thou gavest me to do." Larger love to 
Christ, such love as translates itself into practical 
loyalty to His command to evangelize the nations 
will demand an advance all along the lines and the 
wide districts of our mission territory will be won 
for our Lord. 

And He wants these thousands saved. That 
the shepherdless sheep of the nations might come 
within the reach of His grace, has been the fond 
wish of His Father-heart from the council cham- 
bers of eternity. So consuming was His compas- 
sion that when the fullness of time was come He 
took upon Himself the form of a man and allowed 
Himself to be nailed to the accursed cross, drink- 
ing to the last drop the infinite ill deserts of hu- 
man guilt, and bore the burden of human sin away 
from God into the land of eternal forgetfulness. To 
seek and save the lost sheep and lead them back to 
the Father's fold, He has sent forth His Spirit, 

256 



FORWARD. 

while He intercedes at the right hand of Him who 
promised Him the heathen for His inheritance. He 
waits and waits for the consummation of His de- 
sire. For these long centuries He has been wait- 
ing. And He will never see the travail of His 
soul nor be satisfied till the work of evangelization 
has been done. He looks out over the idolatrous 
thousands wandering as sheep without a shepherd 
and for their salvation he thirsts. Will we sit idly 
by while they pass with noiseless tread into the 
deep spiritual shadows of eternal night and do 
nothing to quench this divine thirst for souls? 
At the bare expression of his desire for a 
drink of water from the old well by the gate, 
the heroes of King David broke through the ranks 
of the Philistines, and at the risk of life brought 
the cooling draught for their leader. Our Lord 
thirsts for the souls on our Mexican field with 
an infinite yearning that will never be quenched 
till these prodigals have come home to His heart of 
love. Does not the thought fire our soul with an 
all-consuming passion to lay upon the altar of mis- 
sion service all our energies of body, soul and 
spirit to evangelize the thousands committed to 
our care and thus help satisfy the hunger of His 
compassionate heart? 

Deus vult was the sublime text of Urban as he 
stood upon the platform at Clermont and pleaded 
that the crowds would go with him to the Holy 
Land and snatch the tomb of our Lord from the 

257 

M-17 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

defiling hand of the pagan Turk. God willed it. 
God wanted it done, they said. And with that 
simple watchword they swept out from the market 
place with utter abandon to all other plans. The 
silver-tongued pleader made clear the price to 
be paid. The tenderest ties were to be severed for 
the sake of this goal that loomed up before them 
as the supreme desire. He warned them that 
many of the pilgrims would fall by the way from 
fatigue or sickness, and sleep at last on the desert 
sand of some far-away land of strangers or down 
in a watery grave. Others would fall into the 
hands of the avenging hand of the savage Turk 
and be consigned to a life to which death would 
be a thousand times to be preferred. Few would 
stand at last in the gates of the holy city, look 
upon its stately spires, see the green hill just out- 
side the city wall where our Lord was crucified and 
the garden where his pierced body was laid, broken 
for us all. Not once did they waver. God willed 
the rescue of the Saviour's grave. He wanted it 
done and that was sufficient to fill all Europe with 
the tread of armies and sweep toward the holy land 
those mighty throngs of Crusaders ever memor- 
able for their misguided zeal, but for a heroism 
that stirs the iron in the blood of every true sol- 
dier of the cross. 

A greater crusade pleads for our service. It is 
the evangelization of the world in this generation. 
And our part is to gather out of Mexico's millions 

258 



FORWARD. 

the thousands who are to form a part of the body 
of His Son and present it "unblamable before Him, 
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Deus 
vult. God wills. God wants it done. And shall 
we prove less loyal in this grander crusade for 
souls? Shall we falter at this crucial hour? Shall 
we not rather crowd out of our life all self-center- 
edness, all wastefulness, all love of ease and luxury, 
all things weak and mean, and laying our talents, 
one, two or five, at His feet, and looking with Him 
on the fields so white to the harvest, pray quietly 
and seriously, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? 
Shall we not distinguish between that which is gold 
and that which is stubble, and turning away from 
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye, and the 
pride of life, and with unsparing abandon, begin 
to burn out for this greatest work of the world? 
Oh that there might sweep over our hearts the 
loyal spirit of those crusaders, thrilling our souls 
as the aspen quivers in the wind, and send us out 
to count not our lives as dear unto ourselves that 
we may fulfil the ministry which our Church has re- 
ceived from the Lord to testify of the grace of 
God, that we may stand at last by His side un- 
ashamed amid the quiet and glory of that hour 
when the world kingdoms shall pay their homage 
at His feet, and that thorn-pierced brow shall be 
covered with the fadeless crown of an imperish- 
able victory. 



259 



APPENDIX I 

Population of Mexico according to the last Census (1900). 



OCCUPATIONS AND OTHER 
CLASSIFICATIONS. 



MALE. 



FEMALE. 



TOTAL. 



Agriculture 

Mining 

Industries 

Commerce 

Liberal Professions 

Public Administration . . 

Domestic Service 

Property Owners 

Various Occupations 

Under Age 

Over 70 Years of Age. . . 

Blind 

Able to Read and Write. 
Total Population 



3,130,181 


27,306 


3,157,487 


96,761 


584 


97,345 


495,702 


262,052 


757,754 


189,404 


48,729 


238,133 


49,558 


12,649 


62,207 


24,488 


700 


25,188 


95,198 


3,785,682 


3,880,880 


9,908 


12,825 


22,733 


174,116 


185,898 


360,014 


3,526,799 


3,527,129 


7,053,928 


79,459 


74,026 


153,485 


8,071 


4,888 


12,959 


1,273,325 


906,263 


2,179,588 


6,752.118 


6,855,141 


13,607,259 



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APPENDIX IV 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Note. — The following is not intended to be an exhaustive bibliography. Of 
the many authoritative and instructive works on Mexico only a few have been 
suggested. A longer list would be confusing. Those indicated will especially 
be helpful because they throw light on the religious condition of Mexico and 
our responsibility toward this neighbor Republic. 

Mexico in Transition. William Butler. 

Latin America. H. W. Brown. 

Mexico Coming into the Light. John W. Butler 

Mexico Our Next Door Neighbor. F. S. Borton. 

Face to Face with the Mexicans. F. C. Gooch. 

The Conquest of Mexico. W. H. Prescott. 

Mexico. W. E. Carson. 

Life in Mexico Calderon de la Barca. 

Mexico and the United States. Matias Romero. 



APPENDIX V 

PRONUNCIATION OF THE SPANISH LETTERS. 



LETTERS 


PRONUNCIATION 


EXAMPLE 


Vowels. 
a 


as a in father 

as i in machine . . 

as ee in meek. . . . 


Pablo. 


e 


Meza. 


i 


Simon. 




Morato. 


u 


Cruz. 


y alone, after a vowel or before a consonant. . . . 


hoy. 



Consonants, 
d between two vowels or at the end of a word. 

g before weak vowels, e and i 

h is always silent 



U 

fi 

Q before ue and ui 

r at the beginning or end of a word or follow- 
ing 1, n, s 

rr 



x at the beginning of a word or syllable 

y before a vowel in the same syllable or be- 
tween two vowels in the same word 



as th in that . 
as h in holy. . 



as h in ham... 
as y in your.. . 
as n in pinion . 
as k in kin 



very strong trill, 
very strong trill, 
as h in home. . . . 



as y in yard, 
as 8 in say . . 



amad. 
gente. 



Trujillo. 
caballo. 
Sefiorita. 
queda. 

rancho. 
Torres. 

Mexico. 

Yucatan. 
Sanchez. 



Note. — The foregoing letters in all other positions and the remaining let- 
ters of the alphabet are pronounced as in English. 

ACCENT. 

Words ending with a vowel or in the consonants n or s receive the ac- 
cent on the antepenult. All others are accented on the last syllable. 



INDEX 

Page 

Abbott 60 

African Mission 109 

Agencies, Our Missionary Chapter 136-184 

Agriculture 13 

Ahuitzotl 39 

All Saints' Day 202 

American Capital 195 

American Population 195 

Americans, Influence Hurtful to Mission Work 196 

American Bible Society 181 

Angel of Intercession 252 

Anti-American Spirit 192 

Appropriation, Larger, Needed 249 

Arcos, Catarina 210 

Area of Our Field 76 

Army 22 

Aztecs 38 

Bananas 16 

Beginning, Our. Chapter 107-115 

Bible, Our Guide, 102; first Edition issued in Mexico, 71; Made 

of No Effect by Romish Edicts 102 

Bibliography 265 

Blackstocks, William 107 

Bonner, Nellie Rhule 116 

Bonner, William J 116 

Bonner, Dr. J. 1 112 

Boyce, Mattie 117, 155 

Brainard, David 255 

Bull Fights 32 

Butron, Enoc 128, 168 

Calderon, Mde 63 

Calleja 45 

Cardenas Congregation 149 

Caste, Social 189 

Cattle Raising 76 

Cerritos 82 

Cerritos Congregation 148 

Chalahuite Congregation 142 

Chichimecas 38 

Chlconcillo Congregation 141 

Christ, Our Ideal, 104; Saves by His Blood, 103; Hidden by 
Romanism, 105; His Love for Souls, 256; His Self-denial, 

251; His Test of Loyalty 255 

266 



INDEX 

Page 
Ciudad del Maiz, 83; Congregation, 143; Field, 143; School.... 156 

Ciudad Fernandez Congregation 148 

Claims of Home Field 227 

Claims of Foreign Field 227 

Climate 11 

Colportage Work 181 

Comfort of the Gospel 100 

Contrast Between the Protestant and Romish Religion 99 

Converse, J. H 250 

Cooperation With United Presbyterian Church 112 

Cortez, His Conquest 41 

Couriers 40 

Courtship and Marriage 29 

Criticism. Scarcity of Converts 206 

Crusades 258 

Cruz, Apolinar 221 

Cruz, Cresenciano 129, 146 

Cruz, Guadalupe 129, 222, 223 

Customs 23 

Dale, James G 162, 117, 146 

Dale, Katherine Neel 118, 168 

Diaz, President 47 

Difficulties. Chapter 185-205; the call of 204 

Dishes, National 27 

Divine Lady of Zapotlan 203 

Divine Plan for Foreign Missions 226 

Domelech, Abbe 140, 230 

Education 48 

Educational Work, Its Aim, 150; Its Advantages 151-155 

Edwards, Amelia B 120, 176 

Edwards, John R 119, 146 

Encouragements, Chapter on 206-225 

Erwin, J. P 165, 177 

Evangelistic Spirit of Converts 215 

Feeding the Dead 202 

Field, Our. Chapter 75-84 

Fiji Islands 253 

Foreign Population 20 

Foreign Missionary, Qualifications of, 89; His Work 86-88 

Forward. Chapter 239-259 

Galloway, M. E 110 

Garcia, Pedro 140. 218 

Gettys, Jennie 120, 155 

Gibbon 189 

Giffen, John Ill 

Gordon 108 

Gospel Standards High 197 

Government 21 



267 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Page 

Grant, A 169 

Grier, Isaac 107 

Guerrero 20 

Hannington 263 

Hemphill, John 107 

Henequen 17 

Hernandez, Inez 131 

Hidalgo 45 

Hllaria, Dfta 221 

History, Chapter 35-48 

Hospital, Dale Memorial 170 

Houses 26 

Huesteca, Potosina 81 

Humbolt 50 

Hunter, Emma M 121, 136 

Hunter, J. S. A 121, 143, 182 

Hunter, Rosema 122, 156 

Illiteracy, Appendix 1 261 

Independent Church 194 

Indian 19 

Industrial Missions 137 

Ingelow, Jean 101 

Inquisition 232 

Irrigation 14 

Ixtli Trade 80 

Juarez 20, 46 

Judson 188 

Korea 206 

La Colonia Congregation 146 

La Fe Cristlana 178 

Las Lomas del Real 140 

Liberia 108 

Literature, 178; Its Utility 180 

Liberalism, Its Cause, 196; Difficult to Combat 197 

Lopez, N 222 

Lopez, S 221 

Love, Janie 123, 157, 158 

Love for Souls 241 

Love for Christ 255 

Loyalty to the Church 7 217 

Loyalty to the Bible 221 

Mackay 253 

Manchuria 254 

Manrique, Elena 159 

Mariolatry 61 

McMaster, Rachel 123 

Medical Work, Its Authority, 168; Utility, 169; Clinics, 170; 

Statistics, 171; Expense, 171; Results, 171-175 

268 



INDEX 



Page 

Mexican Herald 48 

Mexican Mission, The 179 

Mexican Mission Established 112 

Mexico, Its Size 9 

Mexiztl 9 

Meza, Francisco 131 

Mines 13 

Missionary Work of Our Church, First 107 

Missionary Work, Its Purpose 85 

Missions, Mohammedan 206 

Missions in Turkey and Mexico Compared 207 

Moctezuma 40 

Monroe Doctrine, 193 ; Its Moral Bearing 235 

Morato Pablo 212 

Morelos 20 

Morning Watch 254 

Mott 242 

Mountains 10 

Murphy, Misses 108 

Native Characteristics 28 

Native Church, The Ideal of; Self-sustaining, 95; Evangelistic, 

97; Spiritual 101 

Native Pastors, Their Work 90 

National Missionary Conference 242 

Navy 23 

Neel, Lavinia 124, 157, 158, 177 

North African Mission 98 

Northers 11 

Obligation of National Debt 234 

Oil Wells 76 

Olguin 215 

Open Doors 231 

Organization of Miss. Work 86 

Oranges 16 

Orphanage, Rioverde 176 

Ortiz, Jose 216 

Out-door Preaching Forbidden 137 

Ozuluama 77 

Palacio, Vicente 50 

Panuco 78 

Parker 169 

Pascal 85 

Patrick 106 

Paul, His Sense of Responsibility, 226; His Obedience 256 

Penance 103 

People, Chapter 19-34 

Perseverance, Duty of 236 

Plans and Ideals. Chapter 85-106 



269 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Page 

Plantation Life 24 

Politeness 29 

population 19 

Prayer, Need of 252 

Pre-hlstoric Times 35 

Preparatory and Theological School, 161; Its Difficulties, 162- 

165; Need of Better Equipment, 248; Expense 164 

Presbyterian School 248 

Prescott 49 

President Diaz, His Attitude Toward Foreigners 192 

Pressly, Q. W 108 

Pressly, H. E 125, 143 

Pressly, N. E 125, 113, 138 

Pressly, Rachel 125, 114 

Primitive Christianity 189 

Pronunciation, Appendix IV 265 

Providence Leading Us 233 

Raffles for Souls 69 

Reinforcements Needed 242 

Relation Between Denominations 75 

Religion. Chapter 49-74 

Responsibility, Our. Chapter 226-238 

Rloverde, 83; Field, 146; Congregation, 146; School 158 

Robinson, James 108 

Roman Catholicism, Baptized Paganism, 51-52; A Chrlstless 
Religion, 59-60; Converted Native by Arms, 51; Enemy 
to Bible, 71-73; Externallsm, 101; Has Failed in Mexico, 
228; Fanatical, 185; Idolatrous, 53; Intolerant, 186; 
Ignorant of Holy Spirit, 104; Its Low Ideas of Sin, 198; 
Its Prayer Life, 103; Its Corrupt Priesthood, 70; Mercenary, 
68; Opposes Liberty, 196; Superstitious, 201; Teaches Sal- 
vation Through Works, 62; Void of Spirituality, 66; Wor- 
ships Mary 60 

Romero 52 

Rubber Plants 15 

Ruins 36 

Sabbath Desecration 190 

Sabbath Observance — A Problem, A Test 191 

Sacrifice of Human Beings 39 

Sad Night 43 

Saints, Local 56 

Salaries 94 

Salvation Army 137 

Sanchez 132 

San Benito 57 

San Antonio 58, 202 

San Antonio Congregation 145 

San Ciro 187 

270 






INDEX 



Page 

San Luis PotosI Field 79 

Santa Maria del Rio 80 

Saved to Serve 97 

School. See Educational Work. 

Seasons 12 

Sefior de Tampico Alto 212 

Separation of Church and State 46 

Seven Spirits Cast Out 231 

South Carolina 243 

Spanish Conquest 41 

Spanish Domination 44 

Spirituality of Converts 208 

Statistics, Appendices II. and III 262-264 

Stevenson, Macie 126, 155 

Strong, Anna 127, 156, 157 

Tamazunchale 82 

Tampico Field, 138; Congregation, 138; School, 155; Improve- 
ments 79 

Tampico Presbytery Organized 96 

Tamaulipas Field 78 

Tancanhuitz 83 

Tantima 142 

Telugu 253 

Teocali 39 

Tezcatlipoca 40 

Titus 43 

Thoburn 251 

Torres 133 

Travel on Coast 77 

Trujillo Pedro 134, 138 

Tuxpan 77 

Uganda 253 

TJhlhorn 188 

Uprooting Error 93 

Valles, 83 ; Congregation 146 

Vega de Otates 143 

Vera Cruz Field 76 

Virgin's Appearance 54 

Visions, Larger, Needed 239 

Volunteers Needed 246 

Wallace, Lew 40 

Wallace, Fannie 127, 156 

War for Independence 45 

War with France 46 

War with U. S 46, 193 

Ware 108 

Watson 244 

Webster 236 



2 



71 



MEXICO AND OUR MISSION. 

Page 

Workers, Our. Chapter 116-135 

Xavier 281 

Zaleta 185 

Zlnzendorf 106 



272 



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